Flight of the Mockingbird - Rewritten
by Mockingbirdflies
Summary: It's been five years since Sweet Tooth's attack, and Natalia Jordyn is just another orphan living in Gotham City. She idolizes Batman and Robin and dreams of one day leaving the orphanage and becoming a hero like them. What happens when her dreams become reality? Will she save the city she loves? Or will she crumble in the face of her foes? Rated T for swearing and mild violence.
1. Prologue

Hey, guys! Welcome to the rewrite of Flight of the Mockingbird.

Updates will be weekly (Fridays) until I finish the story entirely (Chapter One will be posted this afternoon/evening).

If anyone has a very, very minor request/suggestion, as of right now I can try to work some in.

Author's Notes will be kept to a minimum, and all questions asked in reviews (excluding spoilers, etc.) will be answered at the end of each update.

Please let me know if there are any errors, as I do not have a beta for this story.

Also, suggestions for chapter titles are very much appreciated (even prior to the chapter's posting, if you think of something better than what's likely a placeholder).

Now, please enjoy the teaser trailer, of sorts, and I hope you're looking forward to the new and improved version of Flight!

Disclaimer: Batman, Robin, and all affiliated characters and settings belong to DC Comics. Sweet Tooth, Candy, and all affiliated evil plans belong to Team Starkid. Natalia Jordyn and the words on this webpage are mine, and mine alone.

**PROLOGUE**

Five years.

For the first time in forever, Gotham was peaceful.

No supervillains, no evil plots, no poisoned water supply to speak of.

Just Gotham.

For five years, the people of Gotham experienced the lowest crime rates in the city's history, and it was all thanks to one pair of partners.

The Dynamic Duo.

Five years before, the pair took down Sweet Tooth, the most dangerous of Gotham's villains since the Joker himself. The fateful day they fought and the candy-colored villain fell into that vat of boiling hot chocolate would go down in history.

Sweet Tooth was gone, his body unrecovered - as the reports put it, the heat of the chocolate must have melted the man's body completely. His followers were imprisoned, died, or simply vanished from the face of the Earth.

Every year thereafter, Gothamites celebrated Sweet Tooth's downfall, hailing that day, New Year's 1998, as the day Gotham became a better place to live for everyone. Crime all but disappeared, save for the occasional petty theft, mugging, or disorganized bank robbery.

Over the years, the citizens started to forget Sweet Tooth's reign of terror. Batman and Robin continued patrolling, but the heroes were seen driving around more often than actually fighting. The heroes were still loved and respected, but not everyone remembered the heroic deeds of five years before.

Of these few people who remembered the events of Sweet Tooth's takeover, even fewer remembered enough to care. Among these few was a teenage girl, Natalia Jordyn.

She remembered the heroes.

She remembered Sweet Tooth.

She remembered the takeover and the massacre that had come from their fight.

Maybe it was for that reason, simply that she believed and she remembered, that she seemed to attract so much trouble...


	2. Chapter One: The Home

**Sorry for the delay. Technical difficulties are a bitch. Thanks much to jesterlover for pointing the problem out so quickly. **

**Disclaimer: Hey look! A 30th Annivery Batman poster and a Team Starkid 1 Night 2 Last 3 Ever poster on my bedroom wall!... unfortunately don't mean I own either group's intellectual property. Damn. **

**- FotM -**

**CHAPTER ONE**

**NJ**

**The Home**

An irritating buzzing noise, like that of a fly, roused Natalia from her sleep. Her eyes cracked open slightly, and sunlight streamed in through the window, falling across her bed and those on either side.

The buzzing continued, and in her half-asleep state Natalia put two and two together and realized the noise was her alarm.

Wait...

Shit.

She pushed herself into a sitting position and swung her legs over the side of the bed as she reached for the old phone. It was on the last leg of its life, but it was functional and had an alarm, so it worked just fine for her. She checked the clock and grimaced. Five-thirty AM. She'd meant to set it for earlier, but hadn't gotten around to it the night before.

She could _not_ be late to the studio today.

Natalia pulled on her warmup clothes as quietly as she could, trying not to disturb the other girls. She always got up before them, true, but none of them were very happy when she woke them up.

The door creaked when she opened it, and her dance bag got snagged on the railing, but no one seemed disturbed by the noises. Luckily for Natalia, years of dancing had left her able to move around without making much sound at all. Unlike Amelia thought, the arts actually were worth something.

Natalia continued down the rickety old staircase toward the kitchen. People were hardly ever up at this hour, save for herself and the cook. Sometimes Amelia would be too, but she did not want that today. Hell no. She was already running late.

"Morning, Rose," Natalia greeted the cook as she slipped into the galley kitchen. Rose was an older woman, well into her sixties. She spent most of her time in the kitchen, never talking much to the kids. Still, a small smile crossed her face when Natalia walked in.

Natalia snagged a piece of bread from the top of the fridge, popping it into the toaster and grabbing the peanut butter and jam. It was a bit awkward to move around the kitchen with two people, but as long as she stayed on the side without the oven - the cold side, as she had named it when she was younger - she wouldn't get in Rose's way.

The next few minutes were spent in amiable silence, as they were nearly every day for the two. Natalia rarely ate with the other kids, usually needing to leave the Home before breakfast was served. Though it meant she didn't often get a hot breakfast, she could usually avoid the Wicked Witch if she got up early enough.

"Jordyn?"

Speak of the devil.

Natalia turned around to face Amelia Jenkins, owner of the Home. The woman was, as usual, dressed in a fairly horrific pink ensemble from head to toe, with several gaudy pieces of jewelry thrown on top.

She held back a grimace as she responded, attempting to be cheery, "Good morning, Ms. Amelia. What is it?"

The woman's eyes narrowed, and Natalia could practically see the barely-used gears turning in her brain. "What are you doing in the kitchen?"

Natalia suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. She asked that several times a month and as always, the answer was the same. "Work at the studio starts early, Ms. Amelia. I have to leave before breakfast starts to get there on time." She refrained from mentioning that she'd said the same thing less than two weeks ago. She didn't want to anger the woman so early in the morning.

"That Travis woman," Amelia continued, her tone suspicious, "is she working you hard? Making sure you pull your weight around there?"

Natalia nodded, choosing to remain silent as she slathered peanut butter onto her toast. Amelia seemed satisfied, leaving the kitchen without so much as a word to Rose, but not before snatching a chocolate bar from one of the cabinets. Natalia fought back a giggle at the sight of the stout woman balancing on her toes to reach the candy, and once Amelia was gone she snorted. To her surprise, Rose chuckled as well.

"Sometimes I don't know just why I work here," Rose said solemnly, "but then Amelia does something like that and it becomes entirely worth the time."

Natalia grinned at the older woman as she wrapped her toast up in a napkin. Rose was usually quiet, but when she did say something it was often riotously funny, hugely insightful, or both. She was Natalia's little beacon of sanity in the Home.

"Is the coffee ready, Rose?" she asked, checking the time as she pulled out a to-go cup. Rose nodded, passing the pot over. Natalia took a deep whiff of the smell as she poured it, letting the scent wake her up a bit. In went a splash of cream, turning the drink a nice shade of sepia, and she snapped the lid on top.

Hastily, Natalia braided her hair, cursing her fingers for fumbling and her hair for being so long as she did so. She needed to get going, and the stupid stuff kept getting in her way. She tugged on her coat after securing the braid, buttoning the front and pulling the strap of her bag over her shoulder before grabbing her breakfast.

"See you later, Rose," she said, smiling at the woman and tipping an imaginary hat in her direction. Rose smiled again, mirroring the gesture.

Natalia set out briskly toward the outskirts of Gotham, quite a ways away from her location on the edge of the Narrows. She didn't have money for a cab, never did, so she'd just walk as usual. If she went fast enough, she wouldn't be late. Not really, at least.

She drew her coat tighter around herself as the freezing wind whipped through the streets. Barely November, and yet it already felt like Antarctica. If Chicago was the Windy City, then Gotham must be some kind of abnormality, too cold and windy to warrant so much as a nickname. Then again, Gotham wasn't exactly known for the weather, not when there were costumed crazies threatening the citizens and a pair of superheroes protecting them and fighting back against the crime that ran rampant in the city.

Speaking of Gotham's crime rate... Natalia sped up some more, this time not for the sake of saving time. Despite the surprising lack of criminal activity in Gotham for the past five years, no one could help but feel nervous in the Narrows. It just didn't _feel_ right around there.

Almost everyone in Gotham agreed that the place to avoid was the Narrows. Even after Sweet Tooth was killed, no one liked to go down there. Relative to the rest of the city, spending a minute in the Narrows still said clearly to everyone that you had a death wish. There was hardly any organized crime anywhere, sure, but that didn't mean that muggings, rapes, and even the occasional murder never happened in the Narrows.

Natalia felt relief wash over her as she approached the studio. This place was her home, much more than the Home could ever be. She hated it there, hated it with a passion, despite the presence of Rose and a few of the other girls. But at the studio, she was free from all that. She could shine here, do her best, make her family proud. The people at the studio became her surrogate family over the years, Cyndi most of all.

Cyndi Travis, the studio owner, was one of the kindest people Natalia knew. She was young, probably just in her mid thirties or so, but she'd been through some hard times in her life, just as Natalia had. Her husband, Samuel, had run the studio with her for years before Sweet Tooth's attack on the city. He had disappeared back then, vanished, and after nearly six years he was still missing. Presumed dead. When Natalia showed up at her studio one day not long before he disappeared, the two of them bonded almost instantly. Cyndi was the mother Natalia hadn't had in forever, and Natalia was the daughter Cyndi had always wanted.

Amelia hadn't approved of her studio visits, of course. She would get furious when Natalia, always the tiny, runty kid, wasn't there for her to pick on. When Natalia would return from the studio, things got ugly fast. She could remember one such occasion, the last, actually, with a startling amount of clarity.

_ "Where were you?" Amelia growled, managing to tower over Natalia, even standing as short as the woman did. _

_ "I was... I was at the- the studio, Ms. Amelia," Natalia squeaked, wishing for all the world that she could sink into the plush carpet in Amelia's office._

_ Amelia arched her eyebrow. "Why were you there?" Her voice was low, quiet, and it scared Natalia so much more than if she was yelling. This was the danger tone. "What were you doing?" The woman's hand raised slightly, and Natalia felt panic beginning to set in. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, to try to convince Amelia she hadn't done anything wrong, someone knocked on the door, disturbing the confrontation._

_ After a second's pause, Amelia looked away from the door, glaring at Natalia, and the unspoken threat hung in the air. She straightened up, leaving Natalia still cowering, and pasted on a smile before yanking open the door._

_ "Yes?" Amelia said coldly, her tone clearly saying that she wanted the visitor to leave, now. "Who are you?"_

_ "My name is Cyndi Travis," the visitor said, and Natalia immediately relaxed at the familiar voice. They hadn't known each other for long at all, but Natalia knew that Cyndi wouldn't let Amelia do anything to her. "I own CT&ST Dance Company, the studio Natalia has been visiting. I stopped by to return something she left."_

_ Without asking for Amelia's permission, Cyndi slipped through the door and walked over to Natalia, her kind expression prompting a faint smile in return._

_ "You left this, Natalia," she said, passing the young girl a jacket she knew wasn't hers. It was practically brand new, not like anything she could ever own._

_ "Thank you, Miss Cyndi, but I don't think-" Natalia began, but Cyndi quietly shushed her while Amelia's back was turned._

_ "It's a present," the older woman whispered, making sure not to let Amelia hear. "I'm here to talk to Ms. Jenkins about your visits to the studio." Cyndi turned back to face Amelia as Natalia's eyes widened in horror. Cyndi was going to tell Amelia about the lessons... She would be in so much trouble if that happened..._

_ "If that's all, it was... nice to see you, Mrs. Travis," Amelia said, clearly a dismissal. Cyndi cringed at the use of that particular title, but other than that she hardly reacted._

_ "Actually, I've been meaning to talk to you about Natalia," Cyndi said, nodding in the direction of the petrified little girl. "She's been visiting the studio a lot lately, and I just wanted to tell you about it."_

_ Amelia's harsh glare turned back on Natalia, and the girl shuffled back a few inches. She knew she was in trouble, and could only guess at what might happen when Cyndi left._

_ "Yes," she replied, never moving her eyes from Natalia's terrified face, "I would _love_ to know what Natalia's been doing at the studio."_

_ Before responding, Cyndi wrapped a protective arm around Natalia's shoulders. She hadn't expected the comforting gesture, but she welcomed it nonetheless._

_ "I wanted to inform you of Natalia's work schedule," Cyndi said simply. "I needed a hand around the studio, and when Natalia came to deliver a package a while back she offered to help out. She's been stopping by to get a hang of the work and to get used to the studio's environment."_

_ Amelia was taken aback, and Natalia was simply confused. What was Cyndi talking about? She hadn't been working, she'd been dancing. That was why Amelia was pissed - because she felt that Natalia wasn't pulling her weight around the Home in recent weeks._

_ Amelia narrowed her eyes. "What kind of work schedule? She didn't tell me that she would be working for you."_

_ Cyndi shrugged. "Details weren't finalized, we needed to figure out salaries and such, you know the drill, I'm sure," she explained calmly. "I wanted to ensure that our arrangement would work. She'll be cleaning, assisting in the office, just generally helping out around the studio."_

_ Amelia shot a glance toward Natalia, as if daring her to contradict Cyndi's words, then returned her attention to Cyndi._

_ "She'll be paid, of course," Cyndi added. "Maybe six dollars an hour; at least, that's what I was thinking. Some of her paycheck will go to the orphanage, of course."_

_ Judging by the all-too-familiar look on Amelia's face, all of Natalia's paycheck would be going straight to the devil herself._

_ "Fine," the woman said sharply. "She can start tomorrow. I expect her to be back before lights out at ten thirty."_

_ Cyndi nodded, then turned toward Natalia. "I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning. Does eight sound good?"_

_ "I can come earlier, if you want," Natalia responded immediately, not even caring that she would be working. She just wanted to get away from the Home. Her response prompted a chuckle from Cyndi._

_ "I think eight is good for now," she said, smiling down at the girl, then looking back to Amelia. "Thank you for understanding, and for letting her work at the studio."_

_ "You're quite welcome," Amelia replied, the cold tone back in her voice. "Jordyn, go help Rose with dinner. I'll be seeing you, Mrs. Travis." She held open her office door, clearly dismissing both of them. Cyndi ushered Natalia out before her, and the girl couldn't prevent a smile from spreading across her face. Once the pair was out of view of Amelia, Natalia faced Cyndi._

_ "Thank you so much, Miss Cyndi," she said quietly. "I... just... thanks."_

_ Concern was etched on Cyndi's face as she crouched down to Natalia's level. "It was nothing, Natalia," she assured her. "Don't want to squander that talent, do we?" Noticing the slight confusion on Natalia's face, Cyndi let a small laugh slip out again. "You didn't think you were just going to work at the studio, did you?" Evidently so. "You can help a bit, of course, but I want to give you lessons, Natalia."_

_ Natalia's eyes widened. "B-But what about Ms. Amelia?" she stuttered. "She'll be... upset... if she doesn't get any money."_

_ "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Cyndi assured her, her face darkening. "And Natalia... Let me know if you ever need anything, okay? I'm here for you."_

She knows...

_ Natalia nodded, her small smile back. "I will, Miss Cyndi," she promised. "I'll see you tomorrow morning."_

_ Cyndi grinned, pulling the girl into a hug before standing back up. There was a trace of sadness in her eyes as she looked down at Natalia, but maybe she was just imagining it._

_ "I'll see you then, Natalia," the woman said softly, before turning on her heel and heading out the way she came._

This train of thought carried Natalia through the front doors of the studio, and she made a beeline for the front desk.

"Aria?" she called, poking her head through the sliding glass window and looking for the woman. She emerged a moment later from one of the storage rooms, smiling when she saw Natalia.

"Good morning, Natalia," the old woman greeted, her eyes crinkling as she smiled. "How was your night?"

"Fine. Is there anything I can do around here before class? I have about," Natalia checked her watch, "forty-five minutes until rehearsal starts."

"Yes, actually, Cyndi's been meaning to clear out the costume closet," Aria informed her. "Just organize them, put them in groups, and put anything that's falling apart on the bench in there." Natalia nodded, getting to work immediately.

Sometimes she felt guilty about working for Cyndi, the feeling growing whenever she got her paycheck. She worked around the studio a bit, sure, but for the past five years she'd been taking, and more recently teaching, classes far more often than working. She jumped at the chance to do some actual work whenever she could.

It took hardly any time at all for Natalia to organize the costume closet, seeing as she'd done the same thing only a few months before. There wasn't much that needed repairs or needed to be thrown out, and almost everything was still in order. It took her less than half the time she had to take care of the minor chore, and once she finished she simply went on cleaning.

There was always something that could stand to be scrubbed at the studio. It was to be expected, really, in a building that dancers frequented. Toe pads, old shoes, hair ties - you name it, it was there.

_ I swear, it's like they breed when I'm not watching,_ Natalia thought to herself as she grabbed yet another bobbi pin from the floor of one of the dressing rooms. _It's completely ridiculous._

Natalia brushed back a stray strand of hair, tucking it back into her braid before checking her watch. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she realized what time it was.

_ Shit, only five minutes to get to class..._

Quickly, she ducked into one of the dressing rooms, shoving her sweatpants into her bag and yanking out her pointe shoes. At least she'd had the foresight to go ahead and wear the leotard. God only knew how annoying it could be to get a pair of tights on properly when in a rush...

Natalia darted out of the dressing room, throwing her hair up into a bun as she rushed down the hallway.

_ Can't be late, can't be late, can't be late..._

Natalia skidded into the classroom just after Cyndi flicked on the last overhead lights. Upon her arrival, the teacher smiled, shaking her head slightly. She knew about the importance Natalia put on punctuality - borderline obsessiveness for the teen.

Cyndi's smile widened as Natalia slid the last few feet to settle into a stretch. As of that moment, it was only the two of them in the studio, though her other students would begin trickling in within the next few minutes.

"Is there a reason you always act like you're running late, Natalia?" Cyndi asked the teen with a hint of amusement in her voice. "You've never once been late to rehearsal."

"Like you said when I first started here, 'Five minutes early is on time. Any time after is late,'" Natalia explained. "I don't know; I guess it just stuck with me over the years. I don't like being late."

Cyndi merely shook her head, letting the girl warm up in peace as the rest of the class slowly entered. After letting the kids stretch for a while, she called the class to attention.

"Everybody, listen up!" she called, shutting off the warm-up music as the group paused in their stretching. "I have an announcement to make regarding the winter performance. Please, take a seat and get your shoes ready while I tell you."

The kids obliged, plopping to the floor and yanking pointe shoe after pointe shoe onto their abused feet. Natalia grimaced as she pulled her own on. She loved pointe, true enough, but she'd never much liked how nasty it made her feet.

"Now, kids," Cyndi began, clapping her hands together and grinning. She seemed a bit... overexcited to Natalia. Clearly she was looking forward to the winter performance. "As you all know, the five year anniversary of Sweet Tooth's death is in two months, on New Year's Eve."

The company nodded. After all, the event was common knowledge, and they were all old enough to remember at least a part of what had happened. No one had been much younger than eight or nine that year.

"Of course, every year there are some celebrations of the victory across Gotham." More nods. "Unfortunately, many citizens have forgotten just how much Batman did for them when he ridded the city of that... menace."

The pause Cyndi took didn't escape Natalia's notice. Rather, it quite piqued her interest. After a moment, she brushed it off. After all, Cyndi had been extremely vocal about her hatred of all that had happened over the past five years. Yeah, it was likely just a slip of the tongue.

"To commemorate the events of five years ago, you all will be performing a ballet depicting Robin's first appearance, Batman and Superman's battle, Sweet Tooth's downfall, and all events in between."

Cyndi was practically glowing as the students murmured amongst themselves. The idea was brilliant, really brilliant. It would be the _perfect_ way to call attention to the importance of the anniversary, Natalia knew. And maybe... maybe even Batman and Robin themselves would show up. God, that would be amazing...

"I've already cast the parts," Cyndi continued, drawing everyone's attention back to her. "They aren't yet set in stone, though, so don't be discouraged if you don't have a major part. I based my choices off technical and acting ability, as I'm sure you all expected. Some of the roles did have a size limit as well, so for all you petite girls hoping to snatch Batman's role from one of the guys, I'm sorry to inform you that that's not going to happen." More than a few dancers chuckled at that comment.

"That reminds me of something, actually." Cyndi paused, scrutinizing the dancers seated before her. "In this performance, gender is not the most major factor. True, I would prefer to keep men in men's roles and women in women's, but the fact remains that we just don't have the numbers." Rueful smirks were on the faces of the small handful of guys in the room. "All female roles will be filled by girls, but there will be a few places where I expect the ladies to step forward and act as men for the time being." A few more chuckles permeated the tense, excited atmosphere.

"Most of those parts will be minor or ensemble roles, but for the sake of sanity and simplicity Robin will be portrayed by a girl as well."

Natalia blinked in surprise. What? Robin, the Boy Wonder, portrayed by a female dancer? The word 'Boy' was _literally_ in his name.

Then again, he had been pretty small when he was ten.

She warmed up rather quickly to the idea of a girl portraying Robin. Maybe she would've liked her hero to be played by one of the more attractive guys, but... Cyndi was right. A girl would be easier to lift, easier for any kind of partnering, and considerably more believable as a ten-year-old boy than any of the tall, muscled male dancers in the company.

Who knew? Maybe _she_ could be Robin...

That could be _really_ fun.

At about five and a half feet, she might be just a bit too tall for the part. Compared to the guys, though, Natalia was, frankly, really short. Despite her initial misgivings, she found herself half hoping she could play the Boy Wonder. They were the same age, and the fact that he'd started fighting crime when he was ten had never failed to impress her. He was a skilled fighter from the beginning, and Natalia counted herself among the few who had never thought he sucked.

Plus, you know... he _was_ pretty cute.

Wouldn't it be great to play Robin, though? Maybe the real Batman and Robin really would come to the performance, and what then? They might really like the it, and afterwards they might wait outside the dressing rooms to congratulate the dancers. Then maybe they'd see her - still in remnants of the Robin costume, of course - and they would compliment her like crazy on the stupendous job she did. She would thank them, of course, but then they would surprise her by showing her the famous Batcave. When they got there, they would present her with her own mask and ask her if she would like to fight crime alongside them. And then-

"So, for casting," Cyndi began, startling Natalia from what had quickly become a daydream. "Batman goes to Nicholas Williams. Sweet Tooth, Alex Roderickson. Poison Ivy... Mari Anthony."

It took a while, but after a time Natalia knew that Cyndi was at the end of the list. Robin still hadn't been announced yet. Traditionally, Cyndi announced all main roles first, and everyone who wasn't named was assigned an ensemble part.

This was it, then. If she wasn't Robin, she would just be a part of the ensemble.

"Robin will be played by..." Cyndi glanced down to check her clipboard before looking back up at the class. Natalia crossed her fingers behind her back, full of anticipation.

_Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease..._

"Natalia Jordyn."

Natalia's eyes widened, and she grinned. She'd had a few somewhat major parts before, but this was exciting. Even if some Gothamites still thought Robin was pretty lame, he was still the most well-known fifteen-year-old in Gotham. Well, aside from Dick Grayson.

God, this was going to be _fun_.

"Everyone else, you all have ensemble roles," Cyndi concluded to a few groans from some of the dancers. "Hey, not everyone can have a leading role, and sometimes the ensemble is just as important as - if not more important than - the leads.

"Now, let's get this started. Everybody, make way." The dancers rose and headed for the barres on the edges of the room, lounging around them until Cydi have them a position. Standard procedure, what they always did. "So, Natalia, to start this part, you have a pas de bourre followed by a glissade into a grand jeté..."

Though the piece started off fairly calm, the speed, intensity, and technicality increased rapidly after the dance began. All of the dancers cast off any leg warmers, t-shirts, sweaters, and unnecessary extra clothing within the first fifteen minutes.

Without a doubt, this piece was going to be amazing.

**- FotM -**

**Thanks to Ellora-Carlyle for reviewing the prologue, and again to jesterlover for letting me know about the glitch. I will see you guys with a new post next Friday. **

**(Also, the first person who correctly identifies the reference in this chapter gets a character cameo a bit later on in the story. So, if, for some unknown reason, you want your OC to appear in this story, read carefully!)**


	3. Chapter Two: Troublemaker

**Slightly early update because I won't have a chance to post tomorrow. Thanks for reading, and, as always, ****_please _****review and let me know how I'm doing.**

**Disclaimer: Gotham and its residents are the property of DC Comics, save for Sweet Tooth, Candy & Co., who belong to Starkid, and Natalia, who belongs to me.**

**- FotM - **

**CHAPTER TWO**

**NJ**

**The Narrows**

One thing led to another, and somehow two months passed before Natalia had time to blink. Thanksgiving had come and gone without celebration around the Home, Christmas slipped by without much more recognition. The only difference on those two holidays was the absence of classes. Procedures and chores around the Home were the same, the atmosphere in the Narrows was the same, Natalia's life in general was the same. The teen could barely remember the last time the holiday season had actually stood out to her as, well, the holidays.

Nevertheless, the passing of Christmas meant the winter performance was nearly upon her.

After two months of frantic, eight-to-five rehearsal days, the ballet was up and running. Just in time, too. The company had finished the final touches only a week before, and the performance was set for New Year's Day. The next night actually, at 7:00. Why wouldn't the performance be scheduled on the anniversary of the event it was depicting? It wouldn't make much sense otherwise, after all.

Natalia peered into an apartment window as she made her way down the street, pulling her cape tighter around herself. After the dress rehearsal she was still in her Robin costume, sans pointe shoes, and it wasn't exactly the warmest thing in the world. She hadn't had time to grab her coat on the way out of the studio - she was running late already, having told Amelia that she needed to stay late and help clean - and _damn_, did she regret not putting those on.

Natalia paused for a second or two as she continued to look through the apartment window, fixing the strap of her bag. _Notting Hill_ was on the television, not like that was a surprise. She'd never much liked it herself, but it was the traditional New Year's Eve broadcast. Something needed to remain constant in Gotham, aside from the crime.

Natalia felt a bit of hair slip out from under her wig, and she held back a sigh as she tucked it back in. She _really_ wanted to take the damn thing off, but she didn't have anything to tie her hair back with otherwise. The wind whipping around the alleyway would make long hair unbelievably irritating.

A chill ran down her spine, quite unrelated to the cold, and Natalia glanced around the dark alley as she increased her pace. Something didn't feel right tonight. Maybe it was paranoia, seeing as it was well after ten in the worst part of Gotham, but still... She didn't like it. Almost subconsciously, she readjusted the black mask covering the upper part of her face. In all honesty, Natalia was glad she hadn't yet taken off that part of her costume. Anonymity was a good thing in the Narrows. Especially if the one remaining anonymous was a small teenage girl.

Somewhere behind her, Natalia heard something like a boot scuffing the pavement. She whirled around, a hand on the can of mace in the outer pocket of her bag. Unsurprisingly, nothing was there. Nothing visible, at least. Maybe her paranoia was justified...

She tried to push those thoughts from her head, turning around and redoubling her speed toward the Home. In this case, in this area, this late at night, she was going for the lesser of two evils.

Two men strolled out from the building before her and she backpedaled immediately, only to almost run into another pair approaching her from behind. They seemed to be common street thugs, not affiliated with any kind of supervillain.

Ah. So _that's _what she'd heard. Good to know that she wasn't crazy.

Then again, in this situation... Maybe crazy would be preferable.

"Well, well, well," said one of the men. Of the four, he carried himself with the most arrogance and seemed to be the leader. "If it isn't the Boy Wonder. Wonder what he's doing out here?"

Another one of the men spoke up, spitting out a wad of chewing tobacco to ease his speech. It landed at Natalia's feet, and she had to hold herself back to avoid recoiling. "Yeah, I don't see the Bat nowhere. Let's grab 'im and take 'im in."

Slowly, the men began closing in on Natalia. She could feel their collective tension, like that of a coil of wire wound the tightest it could go - they were about to spring. If she wanted to get out of this, she had to talk, and _fast._

"Sorry, guys, but I think you're mistaken," she said coolly, her voice just barely trembling, betraying her fear. "I'm not who you're looking for."

The men paused, and the two who had, up until that moment, been silent, looked completely baffled. Had they really been convinced she was Robin? Apparently even disorganized street thugs had dumb muscle for hire nowadays.

_Hmm... I'll just call you Dumb and Dumber._

"A dancer?" the leader asked, apparently in disbelief. "Why, this ain't the bird at all! It's a little chick!" The laughter of the group echoed around the deserted alley, and Natalia noticed the curtains in the window she'd been looking through earlier snap shut. It took all of her bravery just to draw herself up to her full height and stare the main thug in the eyes.

"I'm not afraid of you," Natalia said, much louder and stronger than her first statement. "You don't scare me."

The men did not like that. Not at all.

"What did you say to me?" The leader's voice was now dangerously low, quiet. It sounded eerie in the now-silent alley. "Well, Songbird*, I suggest you just hand over that little bag there, and you might just get away unharmed."

Without a moment's hesitation, Natalia screamed, the noise tearing at her throat and piercing the previous silence. Dumb, previously stationed behind her and to her left, took a giant leap forward and clapped his hand over her mouth. Well, over her lower face. Everything about the thug was huge.

After a second Dumb released her, as if it had been a warning. Not thinking of any potential consequences, Natalia immediately whirled around him and landed a punch squarely on the man's jaw. Though a good hit, when delivered by a small girl to a hulking man almost any hit was guaranteed ineffective. A brief scuffle broke out, Natalia and Dumb resorting to biting and hair-pulling respectively, but it was over after only a minute. Natalia's arms were now pinned behind her back, Dumb's hand back over her mouth. The other thugs hadn't moved since the pair started fighting, sure as they were of Dumb's inevitable victory. Even so, Natalia continued to struggle.

"Let's try that again, shall we?" the leader said, thoroughly irritated now. "Give me that bag, girl."

Natalia froze as she heard the impossible-to-forget _click_ noise that had ruined her life long before. She moved her eyes to the leader's face, finding herself staring down the barrel of a cocked and loaded pistol.

**DG**

**The Narrows**

Late-night patrols were annoyingly familiar to the teen. After five years of them, why wouldn't they be? Besides, ten o'clock wasn't really a late night, anyway. Two, three AM, maybe. But ten? Hell, he'd be up this late even if he didn't do what he did.

Robin fiddled with a batarang as he and Batman drove aimlessly around Gotham in the Batmobile. Patrolling, patrolling, wasn't there anything to do besides patrolling? Sometimes he really did wish for the early days of his crime-fighting experience back, way back before Sweet Tooth showed up. No, he didn't really want to be kidnapped and nearly murdered as the result of a Facebook poll ever again... but still, almost anything would be better than doing this. Which was to say, absolutely nothing.

Without any kind of prelude, a piercing scream split the air around the Dynamic Duo. It was a bit distant, sure, but close enough for the plea behind it to be clear. That wasn't the sound of an angry fight between lovers, or the sound of a teenager's prank. That was the sound of a civilian life in danger.

Robin turned to Batman, catching the older man's attention. "Did you hear that, Bruce?" he asked. "It sounded like a woman, maybe a girl."

"Yeah, I heard it, Dick," Batman responded in his characteristically gruff fashion, already headed in the direction of the scream. "Let's go check it out."

The pair sped through the streets, deserted as they were, in their hunt for the source of the sound. They rounded a corner and parked the Batmobile, able to hear the faint sounds of a fight from their end of the alley. Continuing on foot, the partners were met by a strange sight.

"Batman," Robin said cautiously, reverting to the man's hero identity now that they were no longer in the privacy of the Batmobile. "Who is that?"

"I have no fucking idea, Robin, but they sure as hell look like you." Batman's face, usually completely unreadable - partially due to the cowl covering the majority of it - now betrayed the slight sense of confusion emanating from the Dark Knight. His frown was deeper than normal, and Robin knew that as a look of intense concentration, the precise one he used when presented with a difficult, confusing problem.

The pair watched, utterly confused, for another minute or so. The look-alike appeared to be almost a carbon copy of Robin, save for the fact that he was dressed in an earlier version of his uniform - the one with shorts, from when he'd first started fighting crime.

It seemed that Robin's mimic, whoever he was, was being held up by some street thugs. The look-alike, though small, held his own for a decent time against the largest thug. He fought well, but after a time was overwhelmed by the sheer size of his opponent. The lead thug pulled out a gun, and Robin was immediately even more on edge than before. He could feel Batman tense beside him.

"Batman, we have to help him- me- them," Robin said urgently, trying to force his partner/mentor into action. "Come on!" Batman nodded curtly, and a second later the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder ran up to the group.

"Drop your weapons and let them go," Batman growled. The noise would've made an ordinary man quake in his boots, and, true to form, Robin could instantly tell how much their presence unnerved his look-alike's attackers.

"And what if we don't want to?" the leader sneered, clearly putting on a brave face.

Robin looked at Batman, nodded, and together they attacked.

**- FotM - **

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll be back with another next Friday. Criticism and reviews are welcomed and appreciated :) **

_*Reference to Starcrier's "For Your Entertainment", under the Batman Begins/Dark Knight section of the site. Crane's pet name for the main character._


	4. Chapter Three: Curfew

**I apologize for the slight lateness of this part. I've had a very busy day in the middle of a very busy week. Additionally, now that the final episode of ****_Mario Warfare _****has been released, I promise I'll get back to working on that soon. **

**Disclaimer: Batsy & Co. are DC's, Sweet tooth & Co. are Team StarKid's, Natalia & assorted minor characters are generally mine. **

**CHAPTER THREE**

**NJ**

**The Narrows**

The instant the lead thug withdrew his gun, Natalia knew she was done for. She could see nothing but the barrel of the gun, could feel nothing but the thug's arms restraining her, and could hear nothing but that godawful click that had ruined her life.

_Screaming and crying and shooting and blood, so much blood, and a wild grin as he pulled the trigger-_

Footsteps.

Had there been footsteps the first time?

Natalia whipped her head to the side, scanning the darkness for whoever happened to be there - friend, foe, or apathetic civilian, she would welcome almost anyone now.

Her heart leaped into her chest when she saw who had actually come, and she couldn't hold back the faint smile crossing her face as she looked upon her saviors.

Batman and Robin.

Thank god.

"Drop your weapons and let them go," Batman ordered. Up until then, Natalia had never actually seen the Dark Knight in person, just heard stories. Damn, he was intimidating...

And then there was Robin.

Robin...

"And what if we don't want to?" the lead thug snarled, snapping Natalia back to reality. Right, gun pointed at her head, restrained from escape, life being threatened over a dance bag... Not weird in Gotham. Not at all.

Batman and Robin attacked the thugs in perfect synchronization without so much as a word. Unsurprisingly, Dumb released Natalia's arms almost instantly, dropping her to the ground as he lumbered over to fight the two capes. She brushed herself off, readjusting her own costume, before jumping into the fight as well.

Maybe it wasn't the brightest idea, but hey. Both of the heroes were completely ordinary, albeit well-trained, people, just like her. There was nothing keeping her from fighting off the bad guys as well.

Seeing as she was considerably weaker than either member of the famous Dynamic Duo, Natalia headed straight for the smallest member of the group. Not Dumb or Dumber, but the man who had initially suggested kidnapping 'Robin' when they first saw her. She sent a fist toward his face, he dodged and retaliated, and so it continued for a minute or two.

_Maybe I can use a dance move or something, I guess... What kind of kick would work here?_

Natalia ducked down low, as though the was going to sweep the thug's legs out from under him. Instead, she popped back up and hit him square on the head with an inverted fan kick. She must've managed to hit his temple, because he dropped to the ground, unconscious just like that.

_Huh. Dance makes for a pretty good fighting technique. I'll remember that._

Natalia held her bag closer to her side as she surveyed the fight taking place around her - Robin versus Dumber, Batman versus the leader.

Where was Dumb?

She whirled around, away from the heroes and their opponents, and was met with the sight of the brute barreling straight toward her.

**DG**

**The Narrows**

As he fought, Robin kept the victim in his peripheral vision. He couldn't let himself be distracted by the stranger, but their presence begged the question - why, exactly, was someone running around and getting in trouble dressed as him?

At least he was strong; Robin gave him props for that. Not as strong as himself or Batman, not even close, but the stranger was capable of defending himself. He was untrained, yes, and probably knew little to nothing about combat, but he seemed to be able to hold his own in a fight, at least for a while. It was possible that the thugs had just caught him at a bad time.

As Robin watched the civilian, it was called to his attention that his look-alike mimicked his moves almost perfectly. Weird, really weird. The stranger was surprisingly quick, and flexible, too. Maybe Robin was jumping to conclusions when he decided the kid was untrained.

Robin turned his attention fully back to the fight, taking out one of the two big ones - the stupid, obscenely strong guys that every street gang just had to have - as Batman continued to fight the leader. While the leader was, it seemed, significantly weaker than Robin's opponent, it was fair to assume that he also had two brain cells to rub together. Not a second after his fight ended, the stranger felled the third.

Robin felt the hair prickling on the back of his neck as his senses went on high alert.

Hadn't there been four?

An instant after he thought that, the fourth man emerged from the shadows with a roar, headed straight for the civilian.

Robin dove, tackling the thug before he actually made contact. He engaged the several-times-larger man in a fight, knocking the gun out of his hand and into a gutter several yards away. Before long, he felt the stranger join in the fight beside him. Normally, Robin would be completely opposed to the idea of a civilian fighting his battle, but for this one time he held his tongue. It wasn't a very dangerous fight, and besides, the stranger was doing fine without him.

Simultaneously, Batman and Robin knocked out their respective opponents. The stranger backed away, rummaging around in his bag - a sports duffel of some kind? There was a monogram on the side, but in the dark Robin couldn't really make it out - and letting the two heroes tie the four unconscious thugs back-to-back around a lamppost. Once they had finished, the stranger finally spoke.

**NJ**

**The Narrows**

_Holy... Holy shit... Did I really... Did I really just fight alongside Robin? THE Robin?_

_ Wow. Just... Wow._

"Th-Thanks," Natalia said, stumbling over her words in her excitement and awe. She couldn't believe it. "You just saved my life."

Her speaking seemed to catch Robin off guard. What, was he expecting a guy or something? Or someone older, more experienced, maybe? Either way, the emotion flickered off the hero's face after just a second, replaced by the friendly sort of smirk that had become the Boy Wonder's signature expression over the past five years.

"No problem," the Dark Knight responded. A man of few words, as she'd heard. She could see why the pair made such a good team. A dark, angsty hero and his bright, pun-loving sidekick. They balanced each other out nicely.

"Besides," Robin interjected, "you might've been able to handle them yourself. We're just here to help."

Natalia blushed furiously, thanking every deity out there that the alley was dark. If the Boy Wonder, her _idol_, saw her blushing like a schoolgirl over a tiny compliment... God, she would never show her face again.

Batman glanced over toward Robin. "Come on, Robin. We have to get back to the Batcave." The hero turned away, about to disappear back down the alley.

"Batman, hang on," Robin called, halting the Dark Knight in his path. He turned back toward Natalia, grinning, and she felt her blush deepen. "Surely we can at least escort this lovely lady home?"

The Dark Knight glared at his partner, and Natalia suddenly understood why villains were so terrified of the Bat. His glare, even when directed toward a comrade, was freaking _scary_.

"Batman, it's late at night," Robin said sternly, though Natalia could see that he was holding back a smile. "This girl has already proven her worth, so the least we can do is walk her to her home."

A glaring contest ensued, though it didn't last very long. It seemed that even the Dark Knight knew when he was defeated, and he grumbled a "Fine" under his breath. Robin smiled again, and Natalia did too, though she couldn't for the life of her figure out why Robin wanted to walk her home. They were in the Narrows, yeah, and it was late at night, but... Why, exactly, was the teenage hero showing an interest in her?

The three of them walked down the alleyway in semi-awkward silence, the heroes' presence scaring off any lurking thugs. After a moment, Robin made an effort to break the ice.

"So, miss..." he began, "what may we call you?"

Natalia jumped, the sudden question startling her. Maybe she was still on edge after the fight.

"My name's Natalia Jordyn," she responded after a beat. "I'm, uh, fifteen."

"Mmm hmm. And why, exactly, are you dressed as me?"

Oh. Maybe _that_ was why Robin wanted to walk her back to the Home.

"Wow, I'm really sorry," she apologized. "I'm a dancer, actually. My studio is performing a tribute, I guess, for the five year anniversary of Sweet Tooth's attack." Natalia noticed that Robin flinched slightly when she mentioned the villain. "Most of the dancers are playing actual superheroes and members of the Rogues Gallery, plus, you know, people like Gordon. I'm playing you, Robin. My friend Nicholas, Nicholas Williams, he's Batman. Hey, do you have a hair tie or a ribbon or something?"

Robin, a little taken aback at the unexpected question, shook his head. Batman, however, reached into his utility belt and pulled out a rubber band.

"Never know when one might be needed," he explained gruffly. "Office supplies can and have saved lives, you know."

Not questioning the strange response, Natalia took the rubber band and looped it around her wrist. It took her a moment, but she was able to remove all the bobbi pins holding the wig in place without too much trouble. The wig came off with little effort, and Natalia managed to catch her hair before it tumbled down her back, throwing it up into a ponytail so the wind wouldn't muss it too much. She had to work at pulling off the mask for a moment, slowly easing it off her face and trying not to let the adhesive irritate her skin too much. She was able to peel it off after a second, and her eyes were bright with excitement.

"Thanks for the rubber band, Batman," Natalia said, still grinning up at the two heroes. "Sorry, again, about not introducing myself before. I guess I just like the mask."

"It's fine," Batman growled. Her always sounded angry to Natalia, like the person he was talking to had personally screwed him over. That was just part of his charm, she supposed. "Where do you live?"

Natalia's smile vanished instantly, replaced by a scowl that looked rather frightening on her face. Batman and Robin both started, the latter more so than his mentor. She instantly tried to brighten her expression, but it was difficult.

"Ms. Abigail's Home for Orphans," Natalia said, unable to keep the contempt and loathing from slipping into her tone. God, she would do anything, _anything_ to get out of there. "Unfortunately for me, I'm stuck there until I turn eighteen."

God, three more years at the Home. Three more years in her own personal hell on earth. Natalia doubted it was possible for her to hate any given place more than the Home. Anywhere else, she didn't have to deal with Amelia's wrath over the tiniest things, the unbearably long lists of labor-intensive chores, or any of the other things that had caused her to despise the place over the past eight years.

She was positive that there was no place she wanted to spend the next three years less.

"Hey, at least it's just three years, maybe even less," Robin said. Natalia could tell he was just trying to make her feel better, trying to cheer her up. That was pretty much what Robin did, after all. From what Natalia had observed over the years, he was not only a comforting, cheerful presence to the Gothamites, but also like the linchpin to the entire superhero community. He seemed to hold them all together, keep them Super Friends.

Maybe that was why Natalia respected and liked him so much more than any other superheroes. Batman was awesome, Superman was considerably less shitty than before, and the Green Lantern was like her third favorite superhero, but there was just something about Robin. Like all others, Natalia was curious as to the Boy Wonder's secret identity, but she half hoped that it would remain secret. Not just for his safety, but because of the symbolism, of the amazing things he did - they were the mark of a hero, not an ordinary mortal, a civilian off the streets. Even if he and Batman weren't technically 'super'heroes, people liked to keep the illusion of a pair of invincible, incorruptible vigilantes protecting the city. No matter who he was under the mask, Natalia knew that she would prefer it to be a secret.

"Look, I know it's awful," Robin said, still trying to improve Natalia's mood. "Orphanages suck, but you'll survive. You're tough. Trust me, I can tell." Finding out that Robin was an orphan didn't faze Natalia, nor did she wish that he hadn't shared the fact. Most heroes were apparently orphans, after all, as were many Gothamites.

Still, Robin's encouragement did cheer her up a bit.

As the Home came into view, Natalia was struck by an idea.

"Hey, um, I know this is kind of weird, and you probably have something much better to do, but..." Natalia rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, trying to come up with the best way to convince the two heroes. "Um, I know that everyone in the company would really love it if you guys came to see the show, and, um, I think you might really enjoy it, if you don't have anything better to do. It's at seven o'clock sharp, tomorrow night. If you can't, you know, come, that's totally fine, but I know that everyone would really like to see you there, so just... please come, you know, if you're able to... I guess..." Natalia blushed furiously, cursing inwardly at her awkwardness. Why wasn't she able to calmly articulate _anything_ around these two?

God, she was stupid for even thinking that the two heroes might want to see her performance. They had better things to do - protecting the goddamn city, for one. Why had she thought, even for a second, that asking them to come would be a good idea? Now she would just be more embarrassed when they said no...

"We'll... see what we can do," Natalia heard Robin say, and her head shot up in shock. The hero had a kind smile on his face, and Batman's perpetual scowl seemed to have softened marginally. Slowly, hesitantly, she smiled back.

"Thank you, again," she said quietly, mounting the steps to the orphanage. "If I'm ever in trouble again, I know who to call." The brightly-clad hero nodded, and he and his dark companion disappeared almost silently into the night.

Natalia sighed, looking up at the decrepit old building. It was well after her curfew, and lights out too. She'd showered at the studio, so at least she didn't have to worry about the noise waking Amelia up. The problem was, the door was already locked for the night, Natalia knew of no spare key, and the girls' dormitories were on the third floor.

How was she to get in tonight?

Decisions, decisions...

After the last time she had accidentally broken curfew - by two minutes, mind you, and that was because she was in the hospital after one of the studio's dancers wrecked his car - Amelia had removed the fire escape from the window leading into her dorm. Illegal, probably, against fire code, certainly, but the woman was willing to do anything to keep order in the Home.

_Especially_ when it came to curfew.

Natalia could only hope that Amelia wasn't up and waiting for her. The woman's bedroom light appeared to be off, but Natalia didn't relax. It wouldn't surprise her at all if Amelia had simply done that to trick her into a false sense of security. She couldn't count on the woman being asleep or unsuspecting, so she needed to take the quietest, most covert route possible.

Not wasting a moment, Natalia scurried up the fire escape on the neighboring building, an old jewelry store that had been abandoned as far back as she could remember. She'd stored some rope up there after the last curfew incident, in case she needed it to get back in. Along with the rope, Natalia had also taken the precaution of asking Brooke, one of the older girls in her dorm, to leave the window by her bed unlatched and slightly open if she ever wasn't back by curfew. God, was she happy she'd done that now. She was _not_ about to spend her night on a freezing, wet, windy rooftop. Not on her life.

Natalia tied the rope tightly around a sturdy pipe on the roof. It wasn't an ideal anchor, but everything else within reach of the rope was broken or so rusted that it had no hope of supporting her weight. She tied the other end around her waist, knotting it several times before looking out over the ledge.

Wow. This was probably one of the stupidest things she'd ever done.

The buildings were just close enough together that she could push off the wall of the jewelry store and make it through the dormitory window. On the down side, if the rope snapped, she was currently five or six floors up and wouldn't be going below three. Natalia knew that a three-story drop could easily paralyze a person, and that anything higher was almost certainly fatal.

She swallowed back her fear and rappelled over the edge of the roof.

Despite the traces of terror at the edges of her mind, Natalia could not suppress the exhilaration and adrenaline rushing through her body. She wasn't free falling, not even close, but the situation was so exciting, so dangerous, so amazing that she felt like she was anyway.

Natalia backed slowly down the wall, hands tightly gripping the rope. As she descended, she knew that what she was doing was stupid, dangerous, and could easily get her killed.

She really couldn't make herself care, though.

Natalia reached the third floor of the jewelry store and came to a halt, righting herself and perching on the edge of a windowsill. She could see the window, maybe seven or eight feet away and slightly cracked open.

"Brooke," she called quietly. "Brooke, are you still awake? Brooke, come to the window, come on, please!" In all likelihood, the thirteen-year-old was still up. Natalia knew her to be a bit of an insomniac (like someone else she knew) and she highly doubted that Brooke would go to bed before one in the morning.

True to her expectations, the dark-haired teen appeared in the window only a few moments later. Her equally dark eyes widened to an almost comical state when she saw Natalia clinging to the neighboring wall for dear life like some cheap Spiderman knock-off.

"Open the window," Natalia hissed, miming the action to emphasize her point. She wouldn't be able to stay on the ledge indefinitely, and the rope was sure to break before long.

The other teen complied almost instantly, still slightly stunned by Natalia's strange entrance. Brooke stayed in the window after it was fully open, extending a hand across the gap between the buildings.

"Amelia's asleep," Brooke informed her, still speaking in a hushed tone. "I told her that you were showering when she came around to check the rooms after curfew. Even had Amy step into one of the showers and pretend to be you."

Natalia nodded, unbelievably grateful. Sometimes she really, truly loved the other girls at the Home.

"I'm going to jump on the count of three," she told Brooke. "I need you to catch my hand and pull me in, okay?" The younger girl nodded, and Natalia started the countdown. "One...two..."

She had to mentally prepare herself for a second before quietly calling out the final number.

"Three!"

Without hesitating for a single second, Natalia launched herself across the gap. She felt like she was weightless, flying, completely empowered and able to do anything she set her mind to.

Then gravity began to take effect.

Natalia began to fall, and in an instant Brooke's hands were wrapped tightly around her own and the other girl was dragging her in through the tiny window. Her heart threatened to beat out of her chest as her feet made contact with the ground again, and she smiled at Brooke as she untied the rope and let it fall back out the window.

"Again, thanks," she said. "Probably couldn't have made it in without you." Brooke, however, shook her head, dismissing the thanks.

"You would've found a way in, but no problem. I'll be here the next time you need me." The dark-haired girl slunk off to her bed, wrapping herself into her covers and picking up her latest novel. "I'm always up at this hour." Natalia nodded once before pulling out a pair of pajamas from her trunk, hardly able to keep herself from collapsing into her own bed from exhaustion. She folded her Robin costume carefully into her dance bag, placing the mask on top.

"See you tomorrow, Robin," she whispered, zipping the bag shut before crawling, at last, into her own bed. Natalia rested her head on her pillow and shut her eyes, images from both the fight and the following conversation dancing behind her closed eyelids.

Just three more years... Three more years...

**Like I said, same events at the start and end of a chapter, just the occasional extra scene and/or flashback in between. This accounts for the majority of the discrepancies when it comes to chapter length. Sorry they're so uneven, guys. **

**Again, reviews are absolutely welcomed. I want to know what you think, what you want to see, even just that there's people reading the story. So please, read, review, and tell me what you think! **


	5. Chapter Four: History

**Hey, sorry I was late on this chapter. I was busy Friday, and last night I went to see Les Mis. Anyway, enjoy the somewhat shortish chapter. Next week (I think?) the chapter's a bit longer, including a lovely flashback sequence yaaaaaay**

**Disclaimer: It's three AM. I don't own anyone**

**CHAPTER FOUR**

**DG**

**Wayne Manor**

Wayne Manor was a dark, gloomy place. It had been like that for many, many years, ever since Bruce Wayne's parents had died when he was eight years old. Now that his ward, the fifteen-year-old Dick Grayson, lived there alongside Bruce and his butler Alfred Pennyworth, the place had brightened up a considerable amount. Maybe some of the floorboards were still warped with Bruce's tears, but the curtains were no longer drawn, the shades were thrown open, and life had been brought back into the house.

Maybe a little bit _too_ much life, though.

Dick was an intelligent, energetic teenager, and an acrobat too. The combination had led to many dangerous exploits over the years, more than one of which had involved the large chandelier in the entrance hall. The thing had been repaired or replaced more than its fair share of times in the past five years.

Today, though, Dick wasn't pulling dangerous stunts around the property. At the moment, the teenager was holed up in his room, typing away on his laptop. His fingers flew across the keys as he sat, hunched over the screen, with his back resting against the foot of his bed.

"Dick? Dick, what are you doing?" Bruce called from down the hall, and he could hear a momentary pause in Dick's typing. "Alfred says it's time for lunch."

Dick returned to his computer, not responding to Bruce's call. A few moments later, his bedroom door swung open, and the older man stepped over the threshold. His entrance didn't faze Dick in the least, focused as he was on whatever he was currently researching.

"What are you doing, Dick?" Bruce asked, impatient. "I said it's time for lunch. What are you working on?"

Dick kept on typing, still not looking away from his laptop. "I'm trying to find out some more about the girl from last night, Natalia Jordyn."

Bruce rolled his eyes. Somehow, without so much as glancing in his direction, Dick managed to pick up on the motion.

"What?" he snapped. "Bruce, I just want to find out some stuff about her, and, you know, that performance thing tonight. She seemed nice."

Bruce sighed. "...What have you found out?" He moved over to Dick's side, standing over the teen's shoulder and looking down at the screen.

"Well, she's a few months younger than me, she's been dancing for most of her life, and she is currently part of CT&ST Dance Company. They do have a performance tonight, actually."

"Okay, Dick. Figured out anything about her background, her parents? Anything like that?"

Dick looked up at Bruce, his face unusually solemn. "I'm reading about that now." A few minutes after, he spoke up again. "It says here that she had a brother, ten years older, and that her parents were a pair of scientists. One of them, her mother, was a psychologist. She was about to start a job at Arkham when this was written. I think Joker was going to be her patient. Her father was a renowned surgeon and medical researcher. Andrew and Angeline Jordyn, ever heard of them?"

Bruce furrowed his brow, then nodded once. "The names sound familiar."

"Mmm hmm. Well, they were a pretty well-off family, but... Oh."

"But what, Dick? What happened?"

Dick looked very upset all of a sudden, and the look on his face reminded Bruce of how the kid had looked when he'd first come to live at the Manor. That could only mean...

"On her seventh birthday," Dick began, still looking troubled, "a group of criminals broke into their house. Her parents were developing a cure for some really rare disease, MacGreggor's Syndrome* or something, and they had just made a major breakthrough. They were going to take Natalia and their son, Jason, out to dinner for celebrate the discovery and Natalia's birthday, but they were running late, and..."

"What?"

"Well, the villain, whoever he was, had brought a lot of men with them. When they found the family, they freaked. My guess is that the whole thing was a robbery gone wrong... The men pulled guns on the family, threatened to kill them if they didn't give the leader the information on the breakthrough, or something like that. Andrew and Jason both attacked the men and were shot almost instantly. It says that the men tried using Natalia as leverage against Angeline, but ended up shooting Angeline instead.

"The criminals left Natalia alone, though. The report says that, according to the testimony she had to give against the men and the autopsy of Angeline's body, Natalia's mother was shot in the stomach and bled out in her arms while the thugs looted the apartment. They didn't find what they were looking for, apparently, and left empty handed. Evidently, Natalia's parents didn't trust anyone enough to keep the secret safe, so they never wrote it down and ensured that the cure died with them. No one checked on the apartment until late the following morning, when the cleaning lady heard Natalia's wails from down the hall. Natalia's been passed around the system ever since, and her family's killers were never convicted."

Bruce and Dick both stared in silence for a while at the screen of the laptop. After a few minutes, Dick spoke up again.

"Sounds familiar, doesn't it?"

Bruce nodded.

Dick shut his laptop and stood, not breaking eye contact with his mentor at their newly near-equal heights.

"We should go to that performance tonight," he said, not so much a suggestion as a statement of fact. "We deserve a night off every once in a while, Bruce. Besides, hardly anyone'll be there to support her. Even if we go as Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, we're still going."

Dick's tone left no room to argue. However much Bruce didn't want to go, protests weren't going to get him anywhere. And, you know... maybe one night wouldn't be the end of the world. Batman and Robin could patrol later on, after the show. Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson hadn't made very many public appearances for a while, after all.

Bruce sighed, then nodded.

"All right."

_*Reference to possibly the shittiest superhero movie ever, Batman and Robin (1997). Chris O'Donnell, I love you, but as soon as you read the opening you should've run away screaming._

**Just a little request, ****_please_**** take the time to review. It's very much appreciated :)**


	6. Chapter Five: Painful Memories

**Ah, yay! Long update with an even longer flashback. How fun. Quite obviously I'm trying new techniques in this story, including flashbacks and ****_stuff_****, so... yeah? I'm sorry about the late update again. Hopefully I'll get better?.. probably not, honestly, I'm just gonna start getting busier. **

**Also, thanks to jesterlover for the nice review. I was having a pretty shit day, and seeing that certainly cheered me up :)**

**Disclaimer: Batman's not mine, StarKid's various stuff isn't mine, Natalia and a badly done drawing of her I'm trying to do are all I've got here, sorry. **

**CHAPTER FIVE**

**NJ**

**Gotham Performance Hall**

_"Are you ready to go, Natalia?" a soft, melodious voice called through the apartment. "Your father and I have a surprise for you, and Jason is getting a bit impatient."_

_The teenager rolled his eyes, then grinned at his mother. "Mom, I'm not the one freaking out right now. That would be you."_

_Andrew put a hand on his wife's shoulder, shooting her a reassuring smile when she looked up at him._

_"Don't worry, Angeline," he said. "It'll be all right if we're a few minutes late. It's just dinner."_

_"I'm ready, Mommy!" a young girl cried, rushing down the hallway to her family in the main room. She was practically bouncing with excitement, her curly blonde hair going every which way as she smoothed her dress. "Sorry! I had to put on my new dress," she explained, before twirling around. "Thank you so much! I love it!"_

_Angeline smiled. "Happy birthday, Natalia," she said, bending down and putting her hands on the seven-year-old's shoulders. "I have something special for you. Close your eyes." Natalia did as she was told, scrunching her eyes tightly shut and balling her fists in excitement. Angeline held out a hand toward Andrew, who quietly passed her a small box._

_"And... Open."_

_Natalia gasped, her hands flying to her mouth when her mother opened the box. "Isn't this from your wedding, Mommy?" she asked, holding the barrette up to the light. Angeline nodded. "Can I put it in your hair?"_

_Andrew and Jason chuckled, and Angeline shook her head. Natalia frowned, not liking that they laughed at her._

_"Natalia, it's for you to wear, not me," Angeline told her, and the little girl's eyes widened. "I'll hold on to it until you're older, but I think you can wear it tonight. Hold still." She swept the little girl's hair up into a bun, pinning it into place with the golden barrette. The ornament nearly blended in with Natalia's hair, only a slight glitter giving it away._

_"Thank you," Natalia said, her eyes wide and amazed. "It looks so pretty."_

_Andrew smiled at his daughter before picking her up, eliciting a laugh from the child. "You look so much like your mother, Natalia. You should be glad you didn't get my nose." The family of four laughed together, and for that moment, life was perfect._

_Then everything went wrong._

_The door exploded inward, kicked off the hinges. Andrew and Jason immediately ducked, trying to shield the others from harm. Andrew passed Natalia to Angeline, and the girl clung tightly to her mother's shirt, nearly petrified with fear._

_A man stepped in, ignoring the family and instead motioning to, presumably, a group of people on the other side of the door. Only when the first man was brushing the dust off himself in the middle of the Jordyns' living room did he look up and acknowledge the family._

_"Oh!" he exclaimed, seeming a bit surprised. "Well, you weren't supposed to be here, were you?"_

_"What do you want?" Andrew growled. The tone of his voice scared the little girl, and she somehow managed to hold on to her mother even tighter._

_"Well, I would tell you, but then I'd have to kill you, wouldn't I?" the man responded with a chuckle, seemingly unfazed by Andrew's reaction._

_Without warning, Andrew lunged for the man, picking up a heavy vase from the coffee table and swinging it toward his head. Angeline gasped and shielded Natalia's eyes as Jason subconsciously moved to block the pair from sight._

_It only took a few seconds for the impromptu attack to be thwarted. Two other men forced Andrew's hands behind his back, and the third man, the leader, pulled out a gun as he walked toward Andrew._

_"Pity, really," the leader said conversationally, toying with the gun mere inches from the scientist's face. "If you had just stayed quiet, complied with my orders like the rest of your family, maybe you would have lived." The leader pointed the gun at Andrew's chest, holding it millimeters away. He looked over at the rest of the family, and for a second Natalia caught his eye._

_No emotion. No regret or remorse._

_"Then again, probably not."_

_A single shot rang out, and Angeline screamed as her husband fell to the floor. The sound was drowned out as another rushed forward, Jason this time, roaring something nearly incomprehensible at the top of his lungs._

_"YOU KILLED MY FATHER, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" he screamed. Natalia began to cry, and Angeline was torn between protecting her daughter and saving her son. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!"_

_Jason lasted longer than his father, landing a solid right hook to the leader's jaw before one of the other men attacked him from behind. An instant later, another shot rang out, and Jason lay dead next to his father._

_The leader looked up at Angeline and Natalia, both crying as they clung to one another for dear life. He jerked his head in their direction, and his men seemed to understand the unspoken order perfectly. They advanced with lightning speed, backing Angeline into a corner. She set Natalia down behind her, trying to shield the small girl from the attack. The two men pushed the slender woman aside with great ease, one of them grabbing the little girl around the throat and dragging her back to the leader. The other man held Angeline in place, holding her back from running for her daughter._

_Natalia struggled against the death grip around her neck - just loose enough to let her breathe, but not nearly enough to escape - but her tiny frame didn't provide much strength. She was practically thrown toward the leader, and something cold and metallic was pressed against her temple._

_She didn't have to look to know it was the gun._

_The click echoed through the apartment as Angeline stopped her pleas._

_Why wasn't anyone coming to help them?_

_The leader smirked, digging the gun into Natalia's temple. She squeezed her eyes shut, and Angeline made one last, desperate plea._

_"Please... Please! Don't kill her, don't kill my daughter! Please! You've taken everything already, you can have everything I own, just don't take my whole family!"_

_The leader's eyes narrowed._

_"I came here for a formula, a cure," he hissed. Angeline blanched. "I have no need for money, not once I get my hands on that. Where is it?"_

_Angeline muttered something indecipherable, and the gunman shook Natalia by the shoulder, throwing her around like a rag doll._

_"I said, WHERE IS THE FORMULA?!" he demanded, the volume of his voice increasing. Angeline's face was almost completely devoid of emotion, the tear tracks drying on her cheeks._

_She was oddly calm._

_She had, it seemed, accepted her fate._

_"I don't know the entire thing," she admitted. "Andrew knew the first half. I only knew the second. We never wrote it down, just memorized it and burned the papers. Now that he's g-gone... the formula could be lost forever."_

_"Not necessarily!" the leader exclaimed, losing his cool, and fast. He turned the gun on Angeline. "Give us YOUR half of the formula. We can figure out the rest."_

_Angeline's eyes, fixed on the gun until that point, found her daughter's. In that instant, Natalia knew exactly what her mother was going to do._

_"Go to hell, asshole."_

_"MOMMY! NO!"_

_A third shot, and Angeline fell, moaning, to the ground. The gunman, it seemed, had deliberately shot her in the stomach, denying her an instant death and ensuring that it would be slow and painful._

_In a bout of near-Herculean strength, the tiny girl ripped herself out of the leader's arms and bolted over to her mother, barely managing to lift the woman's head into her lap._

_"Don't worry Mommy, it's gonna be okay," Natalia tried to assure her, tears pouring down her cheeks as her body was wracked with barely repressed sobs. "You're gonna be okay, don't worry."_

_For whatever reason, the men ignored her as they went about looting the apartment. Only the leader remained, watching as the girl rocked her mother back and forth, as if the comforting motion would somehow save her._

_His men carried the last of the valuables out, one giving him a signal as he shut the door. Natalia looked up at him, her huge blue eyes brimming with tears._

_"How could you?" she whispered, horrified. "How could you? How can you live with yourself?"_

_The leader smiled._

_More interesting grief than he had expected from a seven-year-old._

_"So long, Sweetheart. 'Til we meet again." His grin widened at the shocked, confused, hurt look on her face before he turned on his heel and left, slamming the door shut behind him._

_The room was undisturbed, save for the two - fast approaching three - bodies on the floor._

_"Mommy, you're okay, you're going to be okay," Natalia sobbed, no longer trying to hold back her emotions. Angeline smiled up at her, but it was a pained, tired smile. The woman raised her hand, cupping the child's cheek and wiping away a smudge of her own blood._

_"I love you, sweetheart," Angeline rasped, her breath becoming harsher and more labored. "Always remember that." Her hand fell back to her side, and she shut her eyes._

"_Mommy?" Natalia said, fear coloring her voice. "MOM!"_

_She tried everything she could, everything she knew how to do, everything she didn't know how to do, but nothing worked._

_Her mother was dead._

_Natalia collapsed, unable to go on. She fell across her mother's body, no longer caring about the less-than-pristine, blood-soaked condition of her dress. She sobbed over her mother's body, surrounded by her dead family. Her life was destroyed, ruined, decimated._

_And the members of the complex went on as though nothing had happened._

Natalia shook herself, trying to force the memories away as they flooded back to her.

On second thought, maybe keeping a picture of her family, taken mere hours before It happened, in the corner of her mirror wasn't the best idea.

Natalia glanced at the picture once more, wondering what her life would've been like if the smiling family in the photo had remained whole.

Her parents would be here, for one. Jason would be visiting from school - probably some prestigious law school, knowing him. She wouldn't have to invent some wild excuse if she got back late to the Home tonight.

God, she missed them.

Natalia went back to pinning her wig on, shoving the bobbi pins in and ignoring the sharp stabs of pain that accompanied every other pin. She should be used to it, after all; she used the damn things almost every day.

Maybe she was just pissed off today for some reason.

Perhaps it had something to do with being heckled by a bunch of teenage boys as she walked to the performance hall earlier?

Yeah, that was probably it.

She didn't feel much better once she'd realized that the Dynamic Duo wasn't coming. She shouldn't have gotten her hopes up in the first place. They had villains to fight, crimes to prevent, lives to save. Lives to live. She was just another kid, one of many orphans in the city. Nothing special. There was nothing to suggest that the famous pair would have shown her any more interest than any others.

That said, she'd still hoped they would.

Natalia sighed, glancing back at the photo. It would've been nice to have someone, anyone, there to support her. All the other kids had friends or family out there in the audience, cheering them on and showing how much they were loved.

Natalia didn't have that. Only one person in the building was there to support her, and she had to be. She owned the damn studio; she was obligated to be present.

A hand rested on Natalia's shoulder, and she didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

"Are you okay?" Cyndi asked, her voice full of concern. Natalia nodded, forcing herself to look Cyndi in the eyes and smile even though she knew the woman would see right through her act. Unsurprisingly, Cyndi's brow furrowed, but thankfully she didn't comment.

"You'll do great tonight, Natalia," Cyndi said, her lightly colored lips turning up into a slight smile. Her hair wasn't in her usual severe bun today, instead separated into two tightly curled ponytails. That, along with the soft, light touches of makeup, made Cyndi look absolutely amazing, and vaguely familiar to Natalia...

One of the techies ran past, before turning right around and running up to Cyndi. The young man whispered something in her ear, and she nodded.

"Curtain, everybody!" she cried. "Get in your places!" She looked down at Natalia.

"Are you ready?"

Natalia sighed, then smiled. "Ready as I'll ever be." She glanced at her makeup one last time, pushing a final pin into place, before taking her place in the wings. In mere moments she was flying out onto the stage, shoulders back and head held high.

**DG**

**Gotham Performance Hall**

Dick made his way to their seats in one of the front rows, Bruce trailing behind. By the time they reached their row, a young woman, presumably the studio owner, had taken the stage and begun making an announcement to the audience.

"Thank you all for coming here tonight," the woman said as the crowd settled down. "My name is Cyndi Travis, and I am the owner of CT&ST Dance Company. Tonight, we commemorate one of the most victorious nights in the history of Gotham's vigilantes' time in our city. The downfall of Sweet Tooth, five years ago tonight, began a period in which our city was eradicated of nearly all crime. Many of you sitting here tonight, myself included, would not be here if it weren't for Batman and Robin's heroic action that night."

A polite smattering of applause rose from the crowd, Dick joining in a fraction after Bruce did. After all this time, it still felt strange clapping for himself.

"Though the heroes themselves could not be here tonight," Dick and Bruce shared a private smirk at this, "the piece is dedicated to them, along with all of the civilians who helped free the city, and those who died trying to."

A moment of silence passed, and a few random names floated through Dick's mind in the quiet, most notably one Rachel Dawes. Her death had been his fault; he hadn't managed to save her. For some reason, her death seemed to hit Bruce harder than the rest as well. Dick had never really known why.

"And now, without further ado, I present, 'Holy Ballet, Batman!"

The orchestra began to play, the audience settled back into their seats, and the curtain rose. Despite knowing what was coming, Dick still found it slightly amusing to see a teenager onstage, portraying his mentor, in tights and pointe shoes. Dark Knight? More like-

Bruce nudged his shoulder, indicating a dancer standing just within the wings. Even from this far away, in the dark, Dick could see the ever-so-familiar colors of a Robin costume.

So there was Natalia.

A few seconds after he noticed her, she flew out onto the stage, twirling and kicking and leaping with increasing frenzy as the story unfolded before him.

Wow. She really was talented.

The first act went by too quickly for Dick's liking, and indeed, for most of the audience's as well. It ended on a simultaneously ominous and happy note; Natalia and Batman's character doing some complicated partnering off to one side as Sweet Tooth and the Rogues' characters were 'planning' off to the other. It surprised Dick how well the choreographer had managed to capture everything that had happened, to so accurately portray each aspect of the story. If he didn't know better, he would have said that she had been there herself.

Then again, the reports on the entire incident were extremely detailed. After all, they were the only reason that he, as Dick Grayson, was able to know so much about what had happened.

As the house lights came up, Dick opened his ears, listening in on the conversation around him.

"Great show so far-"

"-girl playing Robin-"

"-really fantastic-"

"She's something else-"

"-can't wait for the next act-"

"Dick, it's getting late. We need to go soon."

The last comment came from Bruce, and Dick immediately frowned. They had come to see the show and support one of the dancers, therefore they were going to stay for the full length of the performance.

"Bruce, Gotham will be _fine_ without us for a little while," Dick said, a bit exasperated. Sometimes Bruce was a little bit too dedicated to his life as a cape. "We have a commitment to honor, and besides, all the villains are in jail or Arkham. It will be okay for one night."

Their hushed conversation was starting to draw a few strange looks. Dick was quite grateful for this, seeing as it cut Bruce short from delivering the irritated comment his face said he was about to give.

Dick continued listening to the surrounding conversations, eventually joining in on one himself. The woman was named Miranda... Tate, or something like that. She, like most in the crowd Bruce Wayne was associated with, was an obscenely rich socialite. Thankfully, though, her head didn't seem to be as swelled as those of the other members of her financial class.

Basically, she wasn't nearly as much of a pretentious ass as the rest of Gotham's socialites.

"What do you think of the show so far?" Dick asked casually, smiling at the woman.

"I think it's very good," Miranda responded, her accent just as refined and impossible to pin down as always. Sometimes Dick liked to play a game, try to figure out where on Earth she was from. "The dancers are all very talented. The entire show really is quite impressive."

"It is, isn't it?" Dick responded, not paying a ton of attention to the conversation. She may be one of the less irritating socialites in Gotham, but they still didn't have much common ground. Not enough for small talk, even. "What do you think of the cast? Who's your favorite?"

"They are all wonderful, but I have to admit I like the dancer playing Robin quite a bit. She's a gifted performer, I must say."

Dick nodded, glancing toward the stage, waiting for intermission to end. "I agree. She's fantastic, isn't she?"

As Miranda began to reply, the house light flickered, telling the audience to get back in their seats for the second act. Without warning, Bruce snuck up behind Dick and directed him back toward their seats, pulling him away from his conversation with Miranda and starting a brief one of his own. About a minute or so later, the house lights dimmed, the curtain rose, and the first strains of music rose from the orchestra pit.

The audience was spellbound by the story the performers told. The excitement, the fear, the tragedy, the death of that night - horrific memories flashed through Dick's mind as he watched the dancers retell one of the worst stories of his career.

But the thing was, the performance was not frightening or horrific in any way.

It was absolutely beautiful.

Dick thought back on his kidnapping while the dancers recreated scenes and events from that night. His eyes were fixed on Natalia for almost the entirety of the second act, watching, remembering, reliving everything that happened with each movement she executed, the emotions that passed over the girl's face.

The emotion in her face was eerily real. They were parallel to his own as well, almost strangely so. She began strong, confident, determined. As time passed, Dick could see the gradual loss of hope on her face, could see that her character was fearing for his life.

Just as he had.

God, that night... It was awful, horrible. Being held captive by a madman, beaten, tied up, and knowing all the while that his fate rested in the hands of a city that hated him. He'd been kidnapped on more than one occasion, but that... that would always be the worst. No ten-year-old should have gone through that.

And yet he had.

Somehow, though, seeing another person go through the exact same thing... even if that person was an actor onstage... somehow it was comforting to Dick. He would never wish that on another person, but being able to watch what happened from a bystander's perspective, not from his own memories... Somehow it helped.

A few tears threatened to fall. Pretending to scratch his nose, Dick managed to swipe them away without attracting anyone's attention but Bruce's. It was likely the man had been keeping an eye on him for this part anyway.

"You okay, Dick?" Bruce asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, keeping his eyes on the stage. "Just... remembering."

Bruce looked a bit troubled by his response, but nevertheless he nodded and returned his attention to the performance. By that point the music had reached a crescendo, the entire piece having built up to this very moment - Robin's rescue and Batman and Sweet Tooth's final showdown. A series of flips, lifts, and dangerous-looking tricks were performed, Natalia's character being the object of most of them. Dick had never really realized before how dangerous they seemed to an outsider. She looked like she could fall and break her neck at any moment.

Maybe that was why Pop Haly had pushed for them to keep the net...

Dick shook his head, repressing the memories and refocusing on the ballet just as Natalia was lowered onto the ground. The final battle, Batman vs. Sweet Tooth, began a moment later. Natalia remained on the floor, uninvolved, out of the way of the 'fight.'

Still, Dick's eyes kept flicking back to her.

**Guess who's gonna be changing more bits and pieces and details of this story later on? Yaaay. **

**It's 2 AM and I'm trying to edit and post this; please let me know if I let anything slip. **

**As always, reviews are more than welcome :)**


	7. Chapter Six: Rising Star

**Hey, guys. Sorry I missed last week's update. The place I was staying had shit wifi, no cell signal, and was generally cut off from the world. I'm hoping to keep the weekly updates going, but I am starting school on Monday and auditions/rehearsals for the musical start Tuesday, so, I'm gonna be pretty busy. Like I said, I'll try to stick to the update schedule as well as possible. Also, I'm going to try to start posting updates for ****_Mario Warfare _****as well. I was really enjoying that project.**

**As always, reviews are greatly appreciated :)**

**Disclaimer: I certainly don't own Batman, Robin, Gotham, Sweet Tooth, Candy, or really anyone else. They all belong to DC Comics/Starkid. Technically I own Natalia, so that's nice I guess. I like her.**

**CHAPTER SIX**

**NJ**

**Gotham Performance Hall**

"That was so great!"

"I know, right?"

"So much fun!"

"Can we do something like this next year?"

From the instant the curtain dropped, conversation filled the area backstage, and onstage as well. The dancers moved quickly to the wings, preparing for curtain call, but that didn't stop the chattering amongst them.

"Places for curtain call!" Cyndi yelled, her command barely heard but instantly obeyed by the entire company. It never failed to impress Natalia how easily she was able to gain control over a room.

The curtains drew back, and the first wave of performers entered the stage. Natalia had to wait for a minute or two, seeing as she was a main character. She wouldn't enter the stage last - that spot was reserved for Batman - but she would be after others, like Gordon and Poison Ivy. Either way, it was going to take a while.

Sweet Tooth, Alex, took his bow, and at last it was time for Natalia to talk the stage again. As she ran out, the lights nearly blinded her, all directed onto her as they were. She would never get used to that.

Or that applause, either.

Was that really all for her? Wow.

Natalia took a bow, paused, took another bow, and held out her arm to the side, calling BatNicholas, as he'd been nicknamed, onto the stage. She bowed again, this time with him, and once more with the entire company, all the while scanning the crowd.

No sign of the Dynamic Duo.

She kept smiling for the crowd, kept acting like she had never been happier, like the night could not have been more perfect. To tell the truth, she _was_ extremely proud of the performance, and she really had enjoyed it. Still, the two heroes not coming put a bit of a damper on her evening.

Natalia kept searching the crowd, looking for any familiar faces in the audience. It was largely comprised of the friends and families of the students, but, as always, Gotham's social elite crowded into the first few rows. To her surprise, the billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne and his teenage ward Dick Grayson were seated in the front row with the rest of the socialites.

It was strange, actually, that they had come. To the best of Natalia's knowledge, neither had any kind of connection to the studio, and they didn't go to all that many social events anyway. Even more surprising was that their attention seemed to be fixated on her, not the company at large. Why they were paying special attention to her, Natalia had no idea. Maybe they just liked her performance?

Wait... Hadn't there been a rumor going around? About Wayne being one of Batman's supporters, maybe even funders? After all, the Duo had ordered pizzas delivered to Wayne Manor. Maybe... was it naïve to hope that the pair had come in their stead?

Once the curtains drew shut, Natalia raced back to her part of the dressing room. She pulled on an old pair of sweats quickly, not wanting to waste time. If she took too long, Wayne and Grayson could leave, and if they were here on the Dynamic Duo's behalf, they would take with them her lone form of communication.

Natalia had to slow for a moment to remove the wig, eventually having to enlist Mari's help to get the last few pins out. Why hairspray was needed for a wig, she still had no idea...

She lifted the mask off just as she stepped into the main lobby of the performance hall, tucking it into her pocket. Clumps of people were milling around, apparently waiting to greet the dancers. When Natalia entered, several people immediately found their way over, grouping around her and trying to start conversations.

Trying to juggle at least four conversations at once ("About twelve years" - "Fifteen" - "Early November" - "I think seven years, now"), Natalia scanned the crowd for any sign of the famous pair. As bad as she felt about it, she couldn't get too distracted by these people, or too involved in their conversations.

She was determined.

**DG**

**Gotham Performance Hall**

Dick and Bruce were still near the doors of the theater, having been some of the last to exit. Dick was chatting with a few random civilians, keeping up his image while searching the crowd for Natalia. It was getting late, and he wanted to find her before long.

"Dick," Bruce said quietly, "we need to get back to the manor. We're wasting time. We have work to do."

Dick rolled his eyes, knowing that Bruce would pick up on his exasperation. Couldn't the man relax for one night?

"Bruce, relax," he said, though he was fully aware that the command would almost certainly make Bruce all the more anxious. "The world won't explode if we leave for work a few minutes late. Besides, we need to congratulate Natalia on her performance."

Bruce sighed, mimicking Dick's eye roll from earlier. "Fine, Dick. If she's not here if ten minutes, we need to go."

_Fair enough,_ the teen thought, knowing that he wouldn't be getting any better of an answer. He continued searching for her, figuring he could recognize her from a distance by her blonde bun, even if he couldn't see her face. This particular method seemed to be flawed in many ways, as Dick realized almost instantly. Dancers were emerging from backstage, yes, but they were being mobbed so quickly by audience members that it was all but impossible to make out who was who.

One group of people, slightly larger than the rest, appeared to be slowly gravitating in their direction. Straining his eyes, Dick was only just able to make out a person, with blonde hair and a medium build, in the center.

"Hey, Bruce," the teenager said, calling the man's attention with a nudge to the shoulder. "Pretty sure that's her." Bruce's eyes immediately went to the group of people, and he nodded in agreement. A second later he was on his cell, likely sending a text to Alfred about getting the 'office' ready for 'work' tonight.

Dick kept his eyes on the group, and after a minute or two it began to thin. He could see the figure in the center now, and indeed it was Natalia. She took notice of him a few seconds later, and her face lit up.

"Please wait. Just a minute," she said - mouthing the words, really. Dick wouldn't have been able to hear her anyway. Didn't make a difference, though; reading lips was one of the easier parts of the job.

It took another fifteen minutes or so, but the crowd began to clear, slowly trickling outside or moving toward the doors to the dressing rooms, wanting to meet the last few remaining cast members. Natalia slipped past the last few people, quickly finding her way over to the pair by the doors.

"Thank you for coming tonight," Natalia said as a greeting, a wide smile on her face. "It means a lot to me, to the entire company, that the performance was such a success."

Dick grinned, responding, "It took a while to get Bruce to come, but I convinced him. We both loved the show."

Bruce smirked, his next comment coming out as a low, sarcastic murmur. "Convinced me? More like pestered me into submission."

Dick glared at Bruce for a second, and he could hear Natalia's soft chuckle when he did.

"I've heard a lot about you both..." she said. "You two really are like father and son."

Simultaneously, Dick and Bruce rolled their eyes. Natalia laughed a little louder, and both men smiled.

"Anyway, that was a fantastic performance, Miss Jordyn," Bruce said, returning their conversation to the initial topic.

"Absolutely amazing," Dick pitched in. "You did a great job as Robin."

This comment seemed to remind Natalia of something. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry, I nearly forgot. I actually have a question for you. Both of you."

Dick and Bruce glanced at each other, instantly on alert. Mentioning Robin had sparked a question... what could that question be?

"Can you keep a secret?"

This conversation was getting more and more suspicious by the second...

"Well, I certainly can," Dick said, trying to gloss over the bit of tension and cover up the fact that Bruce was obviously on edge, about to freak. "What do you want to tell us?"

Natalia leaned closer, her voice much quieter than before. "Is it true... Are you two involved with Robin and Batman?"

Dick started, and Bruce tensed, his shoulders shooting up a fraction. They looked at each other again, both far more nervous than moments before.

"Yes..." Bruce said, "You could say that we are."

Natalia smiled again, visibly relaxing. Instantly, the worry and tension all but vanished from the air. "Awesome! I just, um, had something I wanted to say to them."

"You know them?" Dick asked innocently, feigning surprise.

"No, no, not at all," she replied, shaking her head. "It's just, the other night, they kind of... um, saved my life. And I asked them to come to this performance... sort of as a thank you, I guess? But they couldn't come, and since you're friends with them... could you maybe give them a recording, or something?"

Her speech, while a bit disconnected and jumpy, was still said rapidly. It took Dick a second to actually respond to the question.

"Of course we will," Dick said, grinning. "We'll tell them you said thanks. Just don't forget - it _is_ still a secret we know them, so don't tell anybody."

"Of course not. I wasn't planning on it anyway, I just wanted to be sure that Robin and Batman know how much I appreciate their help. And thank you both so much for coming, really. Five year anniversary, first really major role... Big night for me tonight. For everyone."

"It was great," Bruce said simply.

"Congratulations again on the performance," added Dick.

"Thank you so much." Natalia checked her phone, her eyes widening when she noticed the time.

"Shit..." she muttered, before freezing, looking back up at them. "I mean, um, I've got to go. Thank you again for coming tonight!" She nearly bolted from the lobby, headed out into the cold night.

Bruce chuckled as she left. "Strange girl."

Dick was immediately on the defensive. "No she's not!" he protested, glaring at the older man. "She seems nice, and she's an amazing dancer too."

"I was _kidding_," said Bruce, the following eye roll more pronounced than usual. "Come on, let's get back to the manor."

The pair left the hall, avoiding the crowds on their way out. Dick walked a bit before Bruce, quietly humming a bit of music from the ballet. His smile widened as he walked away, on a bit of a high.

It had been an amazing night.


	8. Chapter Seven: Early Warnings

**Super sorry for being late on this update, guys. I was traveling all day yesterday, and as for last week... well, I don't really have an excuse beyond school. I really need to get back to working on this rewrite, I'm only up to Chapter Twelve or so... I really don't want to put this fix on hiatus, so I'm going to try rewriting the next few chapters this weekend. Holiday weekend and all that jazz.**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own them, unfortunately. On the bright side, though, I'm close to convincing my mother to let me get some of the old comics. So that's nice.**

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

**NJ**

**The Narrows**

The night after the performance was fun. Extremely fun. While she technicallyhad been out past Abigail's curfew, she'd still had an amazing time with her friends at the studio. They were a great group for her to have - kind, welcoming, and, best of all, not connected to the Home.

Natalia could still remember her introduction to the place she would live for her foreseeable future. As she looked up at the faded, slightly peeling sign, she could remember doing the same thing close to nine years before. The sign had been much newer then, the building as well, but she'd had the same feeling of dread then as she did now.

_"We'll try our best to find everything out," the officer said kindly. Natalia couldn't remember his name. Half the time, she could barely remember her own. She didn't want to think about everything she'd lost. "Until we do, you'll have to stay here for just a little while."_

_The young girl nodded silently, staring blankly at the sign proclaiming this building as "Ms. Abigail's Home for Orphans." Even in the daze she was in, Natalia could not fail to hear the sigh from the officer. She wasn't as talkative or amiable as most people, true. But she could've been much worse, after all. She could've put up a fight. Could've argued against going into an orphanage. Could've opted for a foster home, or something like that._

_But she hadn't. Since that day - how long had it been? Two weeks? A month? An eternity? - she had barely spoken a word, save for answering the officers' questions._

_The officer lifted his hand, knocking once, twice, three times on the door. Natalia's eyes were drawn to the number near the top - gold, like the one on her front door, and on a bright green background, too. At least _something _here seemed at least vaguely homey._

_The door was opened by a short, heavyset woman dressed in tan slacks and varying shades of pink. She looked to be in her late thirties, perhaps her early forties. Natalia couldn't really tell, but she _was _instantly sure of one thing. _

_That welcoming, friendly smile on the woman's face? The one that said, 'Hello! I can't wait to welcome you into this home, and I hope you enjoy your time here as much as you possibly can'?_

_Fake as hell. _

_Natalia could see it in the woman's eyes - the annoyance, the irritation, the flat-out anger of having yet another mouth to feed. She was so distracted by the woman's formidable, nerve-wracking presence that she nearly missed her own introduction. _

_"Thank you again, Ms. Jenkins," the officer said kindly, his hand weighing awkwardly on Natalia's shoulder as it rested there. She'd tried to shrug it off several times, but he ignored each attempt. "We'll get this all sorted out as soon as possible."_

_"That's fine," Amelia, for that was surely who she was, responded tensely. Her smile grew more forced, her tone betraying a hint of her annoyance. "There's always room for an extra child at the Home."_

_The officer was apparently oblivious to Amelia's mood, because he simply smiled thankfully and nodded at her. With a slight push, Natalia was urged forward, up the steps, where she stood looking up at Amelia Jenkins. Neither one of them said anything, but Natalia couldn't fail to miss the glint of disgust in Amelia's eye. _

_With a tilt of his head and a slightly sad smile, the officer left the pair on the steps, returning to the squad car and leaving the Narrows as quickly as possible. _

_Amelia turned on her heel, ignoring Natalia, and returned inside. Natalia was left standing on the steps, and she followed quickly, shutting the door behind her. _

_"This is the Home," the woman said curtly. "Do not play with, touch, look at, or otherwise interact with anything except what is yours. Follow every instruction you are given while you are here. Do not question my authority. The girls' dorms are on the third floor, boys' on the second. Do not enter the boys' dorms unless you are given permission to do so. The other children will explain the rules. Expect punishment if you break them. Do I make myself clear?"_

_"A-Absolutely," Natalia stammered, thrown by the hostile change in attitude. She hadn't expected a warm welcome, true, but this woman didn't seem to have a nurturing bone in her body. _

_Amelia's eyes narrowed. "You will address me as Ms. Amelia or as ma'am at all times. I will not allow you to be disrespectful toward me."_

_"Yes... um, ma'am," Natalia said, quickly rectifying her mistake. She could see the distaste on Amelia's face growing, much more obvious now that the officer was long gone. Amelia seemed to regard Natalia as something annoying and disgusting, like she was a bit of dog shit Amelia had found on her shoe. _

_This was not going to be a fun place to live. _

Unsurprisingly, Natalia's prediction about the Home and Amelia had been spot-on. Nothing about the Home was homey, and the ever-present feeling of foreboding when she saw the sign was still just that, ever-present and ominous. And of course, today the feeling was only amplified by the fact that she'd missed curfew again, and this time by a _lot _more than usual.

Natalia entered the orphanage as quietly as possible, noting that the front door was already unlocked. That in itself was a terrible sign - Amelia was rarely up this early, and when she was, she was always pissed. No doubt about it, the head of the orphanage was already in a foul mood - and who better to take her anger out on than the teenage girl getting back well after curfew?

Despite already knowing she would be spotted, Natalia still tried to slip past Amelia's office and upstairs to the dorms. Maybe, if she was quiet enough, she could play the whole thing off like she'd just gotten up to go to work at the studio...

"Jordyn?"

Natalia froze, a foot away from the base of the staircase, and grimaced at the dreaded voice.

_So close..._

"Yes, Ms. Amelia?" Natalia asked, turning around and plastering a look of innocence onto her face. Maybe Amelia would see through it, maybe not. It really just depended on how tired the woman was.

"Out late last night, weren't we?" The older woman slipped out of her office, a mug of coffee in one hand, and walked up to Natalia. Two years ago she would've been at eye level, but thankfully Natalia was a few inches taller now. Made her feel a bit less intimidated.

"Why are you just now getting back?"

Maybe not much less intimidated.

Natalia thought fast, her thoughts spinning around so quickly that she was sure Amelia could see it somehow. Lie after lie floated through her brain, and she dismissed all but one, her best and only choice, in seconds.

"You know how I help around the studio? Clean, help the dancers prepare for performances, things like that?" Amelia nodded, still suspicious. "I was working last night, and there was a huge performance, so there was a lot more to do than usual. You know, um, hair, makeup, costumes, stuff like that. Lots of things to do. So I had to help with that. I still had to finish cleaning the studio after, and I didn't finish until about, um, three AM? Four AM? Either way, Ms. Travis didn't want me walking home alone so late, er, well, early, so she let me stay in her office until it was light outside. I'm just now getting back, but I have to get to the studio as soon as possible to help out some more."

Thankfully, this lie wasn't too complicated. Simplicity was always the best way to go when lying, but it wasn't always guaranteed to trick Amelia. Natalia had hopes for this one, though. This early in the morning, at least.

"Very well," Amelia snapped, still glaring at Natalia. "As long as she's working you hard."

Natalia turned to head up the stairs, taking a deep breath as she did so. No punishment. No threat. That was a first.

"Oh, and Jordyn?"

_...Damnit._

"Yes, Ms. Amelia?" Natalia turned back around slowly, not wanting to look at the woman but also not wanting to risk punishment for disrespect.

"The next time you break curfew, the next time you stay out at night, the next time you are not here the instant I need you, there will be consequences. _Major _consequences. You don't want that, do you?"

Natalia shook her head, and the silent response seemed to satisfy Amelia. Enough to make her flounce away, at least. Natalia scrambled up the stairs, trying to get to the third floor as quickly as possible. She had no desire to be near Amelia longer than absolutely necessary.

The dorm was, unsurprisingly, near deserted when she opened the door. The girls were likely doing morning chores, about to head to breakfast. One or two of the younger girls were still asleep on some small cots in one of the back corner, but aside from their soft breathing everything was quiet, just as Natalia liked in the morning.

After carefully picking her way across the cluttered room, Natalia sat down on the edge of her bed and yanked her duffel onto her lap. It took a few minutes of searching, but she was able to find a clean pair of tights and a leotard without waking the little girls. The clothes went into her dance bag, the duffel back under her bed.

Quietly, checking to make sure no one was looking, Natalia lifted up the corner of her mattress, withdrawing a slightly bulging, creased envelope. All of the money she'd made in the past year, maybe more, was crammed inside. This little envelope, the bundle of bills inside, was her ray of hope.

If she could make it big enough, she could get out of the Home.

Some of her money was already in Gotham's First National Bank, but most of it had been tied up under her mattress for months. There was an extra packet under there too, a few bucks in case she ever had to leave fast, but this envelope was they key to escaping, to paving her own way once she left the orphanage. Today was the day to deposit her savings, to see if she would soon have enough to rent an apartment.

She was so close.

Practice today would be long, certainly, so Natalia made sure to bury the envelope at the bottom of her dance bag. She didn't want to run the risk of it being stolen while she was in class. Paranoid, maybe. Ridiculous, no. It was Gotham, after all.

Natalia slipped back downstairs, zipping up her bag and throwing on a jacket as she headed for the doors. Most of the kids were probably at breakfast now, though a few were still doing some minor chores. Smiles, nods, and murmured "Good morning"s passed between Natalia and the others on her way out, and the teen paused beside Amelia's office, waiting for the orphanage head to acknowledge her departure. Amelia did so, with her customary scowl, and a second later Natalia was on her way back the way she had come, back to the studio.

Back to her _real _home.


	9. Chapter Eight: Happy New Year

**Again, sorry for a slightly delayed update. Saturday morning(ish) instead of Friday, I know. I was so focused on these two papers and my Trig homework and I didn't actually realize it was after 11:30 until I was already about halfway through my workout. Sorry about that, but I promise I **_**will **_**keep to the Friday/sometimes Saturday update schedule. I've got to get myself to write more often...**

******Also, you'll noticed I changed my penname from hogwartsalways5298 to Mockingbirdflies. It's mostly just so 'll remember it better, to be honest, since it's the same as my tumblr. So, yeah.**

******As always, reviews/thoughts/critiques are welcomed/appreciated/begged for. Let me know what you think, what you'd like to see, whatever. It all helps.**

******Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own very few of the characters in this story, although I am ****__****super ********pumped for the Gotham premiere.**

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

**NJ**

**Downtown Gotham**

Several hours later (to be honest, Natalia wasn't quite sure how many it had been - practice had gone longer than expected), Natalia finally found herself walking down one of Gotham's more populated streets toward the First National Bank. She was tired, she was sore, and she wanted nothing more than to reach the cool darkness of the bank.

The one good thing that came from all those hours of teaching was that people were actively veering around her on the sidewalk. Natalia didn't blame the pedestrians in the least - covered in sweat and dressed as sloppily as she was, she would've avoided herself if she could. Add to that the fact that the last two hours of her day had been dedicated to a group of overexcited three and four year olds, and she was glad for the lack of human contact.

A few of the higher-ups in the bank glared at her when she walked in, their lips curling at her appearance. Gotham's elite... significantly more snobbish than in most other cities. They were a great group if you were on their good side, but if you didn't fit their cookie-cutter "perfect Gothamite" ideal - obscenely rich, extremely social, and outrageously pretty - to a T, you were instantly worth less than dirt. Some of them were better than others, as to be expected, but as a general rule Natalia avoided the city's socialites like the plague, unless she had no choice - like after a performance, or, unfortunately, like now.

The bank was a bit crowded, actually, but it retained its quiet calmness despite this fact. Natalia found it interesting that today, New Years, of all days, was one of the busier days for the bank. Fewer employees and shorter hours, as a general rule, would mean less business, but that rule was always thrown on its head come this particular holiday. Possibly as a result of late-night drunken bets, party prizes, giveaways - a person could theorize for hours as to why today was always especially busy. Today, though, Natalia preferred to simply sit and be quiet, rather than people-watch as she often did.

She flipped through her current novel for a while, trying to immerse herself in the world within the pages. Murder mysteries, epic heists, amazing detective skills... She couldn't get into a fictional world of crime at that moment. Tucking the book back into her bag, Natalia pulled out another, older and more weathered than the first. The cover was nearly falling off, and was worn so badly that it was difficult to make out the title and author, but it was still legible: _To Kill A Mockingbird_, by Harper Lee. One of her favorite books, it never failed to keep Natalia's attention when she was bored. She'd read it herself well over a dozen times, and her parents had read it to her before then, and she would read it a hundred times again. Classics were classics for a reason, after all.

Natalia read for about half an hour, maybe a little while less, while she waited in line. Shortly before she reached the counter she went to tuck her book away, and in doing so she took notice of the two men standing behind her. Their position in itself was odd, as they had only come in a few minutes before. Hadn't they? They were a bit eccentrically dressed, too: extremely dark suits, hats pulled low over their eyes, and neon-bright ties - one hot pink, one electric blue.

Maybe she was just being paranoid... but what was that bulge in Pink Tie Guy's pocket?

The teller cleared his throat, catching her attention. Natalia stepped up to the counter, on edge. Yes, most (if not all) Gothamites carried a gun wherever they went... but seeing one in a bank made her nervous.

"Deposit for Natalia Jordyn," she said calmly, keeping her eyes locked on the teller. Maybe, if she acted nervous enough, the young man would take notice, maybe be able to hit the silent alarm. Weren't banks one of the few places guns weren't allowed?

The teller seemed a bit concerned, but didn't appear to pick up on Natalia's attempted message. "All right, miss..." He pulled over a pen and paper, readjusting his glasses as they started slipping off his nose. "How much?"

Still trying not to look back at the mystery men, she withdrew the envelope and placed it, carefully, on the countertop. The instant her hand left the envelope, someone behind her screamed shrilly. The teller's face blanched, his eyes wide. Every muscle in Natalia's body tensed, and she slowly turned around.

"This is a robbery!" Pink Tie Guy yelled, waving a gun in the air. A semiautomatic pistol, maybe? Natalia had never been great at recognizing different types of guns. "Everybody on the ground!"

Just as slowly as she had turned around, Natalia slid down the wall to the floor, playing the part of the good little hostage. There was silence for a few moments as the bank's richer patrons tried to figure out what was happening, and as the commoner people simply accepted today's fate and moved on. Funny, really, that after five years this was still how robberies and attacks seemed to work.

One man, on the opposite side of the bank from Natalia, made an extremely stupid decision at that point. Probably thinking he would be hailed as a hero and not an idiot, he jumped up and rushed straight for the criminals. Unarmed and lacking much of an element of surprise, Natalia would've expected the man to end up worse than he did. Instead of shooting to kill, Blue Tie Guy fired a shot only an inch or so above the man's head. The 'hero' froze instantly, pale, like a deer in the headlights. Pink Tie Guy, shorter and stockier than his companion, shoved him down and glared while the man scurried back toward the wall.

"Let's try that again, shall we?" Pink Tie Guy growled, his scowl contorting his face so much that Natalia was reminded of Two Face's twisted side. "If anyone tries to play the hero, Joe here will blow this girl's brains out."

What girl? Neither one of them was-

Someone's hand clamped around Natalia's upper arm, yanking her to her feet. Before she could react, her arms were pinned tightly behind her back, and the barrel of a gun was digging into her temple.

"And this time, I promise he won't miss."

_Not a gun... Anything but a gun..._

Natalia took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself, but it wasn't working.

If she was going to die young, she would've picked any way but this.

Natalia fixed her eyes on the glass doors, focusing on them to try to ignore the coldness spreading from her temple. Why wasn't anyone here yet? Had the teller hit the silent alarm? Were the police already on their way? Were Robin and Batman?

Natalia thought she saw the edge of the bat symbol, hanging in the sky and mostly obscured by the skyscraper across the street. She had no way to be sure, though. She could call attention to it to distract the gunmen, then free herself and maybe try attacking one, but she didn't want to risk her own life or anyone else's by doing something stupid. And her "plan" was just that, stupid. She just needed to keep her mouth shut, stay quiet, and hope that everyone else did the same.

"You, teller," Pink Tie Guy snapped, leveling his gun on the terrified young man. He couldn't have been much older than Natalia, and she could see him shaking. "You're gonna take the three of us to the vaults. You're gonna take everything out and put it in this bag." He threw a large duffel at the teller, who just barely caught it, then turned back toward the civilians on the ground.

"If anyone tries to escape, you all die," Pink Tie Guy snarled down at them. He was met with silence and a few nods. The people were learning from the earlier man's mistake, at least.

"Come on, girl," Blue Tie Guy growled, pushing Natalia forward. "Get movin'."

Without a warning, the glass doors shattered. There hadn't been a gunshot, nor anything else that would be more typical of the police... some kind of charge, then?

Something that Robin and Batman would use.

"Who's there?" Pink Tie Guy yelled, cocking his pistol and aiming it at what used to be the doors. "Show yourself now or this girl's gonna get a bullet to the brain!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that!" a familiar voice called from outside. Robin and Batman burst through the entrance a second later, prepared for a fight. The tension and fear in the room grew exponentially, and while Pink Tie Guy paled, Blue Tie Guy merely held Natalia tighter and pressed his gun harder into the back of her head. She smiled a bit awkwardly at the two heroes, hoping that they would save her and feeling rather stupid for needing to be saved again.

**DG**

**Batcave**

Batman rushed to the Batmobile, Robin inches behind him. Both heroes were alarmed by the hostage situation at the First National Bank. Never in the last five years had there been a hostage situation of this magnitude, and no crimes this organized had been committed in a month or more. They were both silent as they sped through the streets, thinking hard about the situation.

What could have triggered this? Who could be behind it - was it just the robbers or a bigger, badder head guy?

Who benefits?

In less than ten minutes, maybe only five, the duo arrived at the scene. As expected, the police were just getting there, cordoning off the area even as the Batmobile skidded past them and parked across the street from the bank, just out of sight of the glass doors. Without so much as a word to Gordon, or any other cops for that matter, Batman and Robin leapt out of the Batmobile and snuck forward, crouching on either side of the door. Batman rolled a small charge toward the center of the door, the glass shattering only a second or so later.

A voice, gruff, angry, and vaguely familiar, yelled from inside the bank. "Who's there?" the man demanded. "Show yourself now or this girl's gonna get a bullet to the brain!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that!" Robin yelled, pausing for a second before busting through the already busted door. He could swear he saw Batman roll his eyes - really, though, could the Dar Knight really judge when it came to theatrics?

Once entering, Robin could hardly fail to notice that one of the hostages - the girl whose life was just threatened - was none other than Natalia Jordyn. A man nearly twice her size was holding her at gunpoint, and, as with the voice from moments before, he seemed somehow familiar to Robin.

Natalia smiled awkwardly, a 'What can you do?' kind of look briefly crossing her face. Robin recognized that look. Natalia was annoyed this was happening, yes, but she was trying to cover up just how afraid she was by playing up that exasperation. The fact that the man holding her seemed to be pressing the gun harder against the back of her head probably wasn't helping.

They were all frozen for a fraction of a second, no one attacking or trying to run. Then, apparently getting over the shock or perhaps the fear of seeing the Dynamic Duo, the smaller man fired several shots at Robin and Batman. They both dodged, ducking to either side of the doors. As per usual, Batman looped around to fight the two men while Robin made sure the hostages got out. It was what the duo usually did when there were only a couple of low-risk goons to deal with.

This maneuver, thankfully, seemed to confuse the man holding Natalia. Robin's attention was focused on getting the slightly shell-shocked hostages out of there, but he saw her pulling out of his reach.

Just as he ushered one of the last hostages out, a woman screamed from behind him. Robin whirled around, taking a split second to note that Batman had just KO'd one of the thugs, before looking for the source. A young woman, probably in her twenties, had gone deathly pale, staring at the scene in the center of the room. She was the one who screamed, but she was not the one in danger.

The click of a gun's safety pulled Robin's eyes to the remaining thug. Natalia had been halted in her escape from the man, caught as she now was in the conscious thug's crosshairs. Her eyes flicked several times from the barrel of the gun to its target in the center of her chest. Then, for just an instant, she caught Robin's eye. Her eyes sparked with fear.

The man fired.


	10. Chapter Nine: A Civilian's Assistance

**Not going to lie, guys, this is kind of a short update. I tried to make it longer and more significant to the story... but still, kind of a filler. I wanted to keep the chapters broken up as they originally were, and this was originally an extremely short not-really-chapter. So yeah, kind of short this week (though I haven't actually gotten to check the word count?). I'm really sorry - but hey, things're gonna start picking up relatively soon!**

**(And yeah, next time I start a new story, I promise - I'll work a lot more on getting rid of filler, starting the action sooner, etc., but hey, I'm still learning :) )**

**Disclaimer: I adore Dick Grayson with all of my heart, but, alas, he can never be mine. Nor can any of the BatFam or their associates. Sigh. **

******CHAPTER NINE**

**DG**

**Gotham City First National Bank**

The instant the shot was fired, the two heroes and the civilian were on the move. As Robin ran to apprehend the thug, he watched Natalia twist her body and dive out of the way, landing near the doors and skidding until she nearly hit the wall. A second later Batman tackled the thug. Robin, thinking Natalia and the other hostages were safe, instantly joined in. With the combined force of the Dynamic Duo, it took less than a minute to take the second thug down.

"Batman!" an urgent voice called. Not the voice of a cop, but from one of the hostages. Batman turned to look, and Robin responded as well, despite not having his name called. It was second nature by that point - when Batman is called, Robin should respond too.

The hostage who'd called them was probably around Robin's age, his hair dark and mussed, much like the young hero's. The teenager was sitting right where Natalia had landed, and he had his hands pressed onto Natalia's shoulder.

His hands were soaked in blood.

In a flash, Robin was crouched beside the now-unconscious girl, carefully prying the teenager's hands from Natalia's shoulder to find the extent of the damage. A gaping hole, smack in the center of her shoulder, stared up at him. From what Robin could tell, the bullet had gone clean through, and a glance to the wall opposite of where Natalia had been standing confirmed that. The bullet was lodged in the wood paneling, not Natalia.

_At least there's nothing to remove... _Robin thought to himself. _But still, she's bleeding too much..._

Indeed, she was. The pressure that the teenager had been putting on her shoulder had helped to an extent, but now that pressure was removed and Natalia's blood ran freely again. Already the girl was far paler than usual.

Robin looked back over his shoulder, where he knew Batman was standing.

"She needs help," he said. "Badly."

"She can get some at the hospital," Batman responded gruffly. "Come on. We have to go."

The teenager cleared his throat, catching the attention of both heroes.

"Um, Batman, she may not make it to the hospital," he informed them as he resumed applying pressure. "She's lost a lot of blood, and Gotham General is on the other side of the city."

"And Batman, the hospital bill may be too expensive for her to pay," Robin said, only loud enough for his partner to hear, "and I've heard some nasty things about the Home."

He could hear Batman's aggravated sigh, but a second later the dark hero nodded once. As the cops flooded into the bank, Batman scooped the unconscious girl off the ground, and the teenager stood as well, keeping his hands pressed on the wound. Robin lead the way out to the Batmobile, ushering policemen and civilians to the side, attempting to speed their progress through the crowd.

"We'll take it from here, sir," Robin said as they reached the Batmobile. "Thanks for your help."

"Not a problem, Boy Wonder," the woman responded with a slight smirk, before reaching down to the hem of his shirt and tearing off a long strip. "Here. Keep this pressed on the wound. Try to staunch the bleeding."

Robin nodded, helping Batman place Natalia in the back of the Batmobile. He immediately slipped in next to her, reapplying pressure to her shoulder as quickly as he could. The fabric was nearly soaked after only a few seconds, and a moment after that they were tearing off in the direction of the Batcave.

**I promise, next week's update should be longer. I need to get writing, though, I'm only up to Chapter Twelve... Yeesh.**

**Also, something very very important -**

**Guess who's terrible with chapter titles? Me.**

**Guess who's got like forty more chapters to write titles for?**

**Also me.**

**So, to anyone who read the original, please feel free to send in ideas prior to any given chapter's release. If anyone wants to suggest a different title after a chapter's been posted, feel free - chances are, I'll change it. I've got two or three spread across the fic that I like, but for the most part I'm drawing a blank for titles. Help a girl out?**


	11. Chapter Ten: The Batcave

******Shit, guys, sorry. I didn't realize I missed the past two updates until just now. I've been working on papers like crazy and I completely forgot I promised to get a chapter out a week. I'm really sorry, I feel really bad about this. But anyway, here's the next chapter for y'all. My big paper is due Wednesday, so at least I won't have that to distract me from next update.**

******Disclaimer: Don't own the DCU or any of Team StarKid's original characters.**

******CHAPTER TEN**

******NJ**

******Unknown**

**Her shoulder hurt. **

**She wasn't sure just where she was, or how long she'd been there, but she knew her shoulder hurt like hell. **

**Natalia kept her eyes shut, trying to use her other senses to figure out her location. She was laying on some kind of cot - nothing fancy, something like a slightly less comfortable hospital bed. It felt like she was in a large space - enclosed, definitely, but large. It was quiet, too, the humming of machines and her own breathing the only noises she could make out. The air felt dry, but it smelled... not musty, not damp, but it didn't feel... right. Was she underground, maybe?**

**_Underground, large space, pretty quiet..._****Natalia thought. ****_Am I in a cave?_**

**_A cave, a cave, what's in a cave?_**

**Natalia heard some soft rustling and squeaking from far overhead, and an answer came to her instantly. **

**_Bats. _**

**Why was she in a cave? Why were there bats involved? What was going on? What happened?**

**Wait... The bank... The robbery... The gun... Batman...**

**_Batman!_**

**Natalia shot upright, her eyes snapping open as she took in the sight of the famous Batcave. Pain immediately shot through her shoulder and she yelped, her left hand flying to the wound. She had barely touched her gauze-covered shoulder before a gloved hand was moving her fingers away. **

**"Be careful," a familiar voice warned her. Natalia looked up from the green glove, her eyes meeting another pair, disguised behind a half-mask - one that Gothamites had mockingly referred to as the "Hamburglar mask" five years before. "The bullet went straight through your shoulder. You lost quite a bit of blood."**

**"Why am I here?" she asked Robin, making herself get straight to the point. "Why didn't you and Batman just take me to the hospital? Would've meant less trouble for the pair of you."**

**Robin fidgeted slightly, and Natalia had to keep a quiet giggle to herself. Was she making the Boy Wonder uncomfortable? Funny, that. **

**"Like I said, the bullet went through your shoulder, and you were losing too much blood to make it to Gotham General, and frankly the Batcave has much better supplies for bullet wounds and blood loss."**

**"Good to know you care about Gotham's citizens so much," Natalia said, trailing off into thought. "Um, his long have I been here, actually?"**

**"Only a few hours now," Robin responded quickly. "Once you were stable, Batman and I left you with Agent A while we went to the Home."**

**"Agent A? Who's that?" asked Natalia, curious. **

**"A friend," Robin said a bit delicately, as though the word "friend" didn't quite explain this 'Agent A' correctly. **

**"And the Home? Why did you go there?" Natalia asked urgently. "Please don't tell me you went as heroes, Amelia'll kill me... Hell, who am I kidding, she's going to kill me anyway..." She put her head in her hand, trying not to think of the consequences of the bank incident. **

**"Don't worry, Batman and I went in civilian disguise. We informed Ms. Jenkins that you were kidnapped and you needed to be located and then questioned about information pertaining to your captors and their plans. She didn't seem too concerned about your situation," Robin added, sounding slightly upset. **

**"It's fine," Natalia responded immediately. "She's usually like that. Probably more worried about money than about my well-being. Nothing new there, I'm already used to it."**

**Robin nodded, though he didn't seem entirely pleased with her answer. "Batman should be with her now. I've just let him know that you're awake. The story we're giving her is that you were injured during the kidnapping and you need to be kept in a 'medical facility' overnight to be safe. Other than asking about how much this will cost her, she doesn't seem concerned."**

**Natalia's eyes widened, the little color still in her face draining almost instantly. **

**"Oh god, how much ****_is_****this going to cost? I can't believe I didn't think of this before... Oh god, oh shit... Amelia's going to..." Subconsciously, Natalia's fingers ghosted over a faint bruise on her wrist. She would've jumped up and started pacing, or run to the Batmobile and drove straight to the Home, if Robin hadn't put his hand on her good shoulder and pushed her gently back down. **

**"We're not going to charge you, Natalia. It's not like we're lacking when it comes to medical supplies." Robin laughed a bit before sobering, a hard look in his eyes. "Stop worrying, Natalia. We just need to make sure you've recovered enough before we even attempt to move you."**

**Natalia nodded, closing her eyes and tilting her head back. "Thank you, again, for saving me... again."**

**"Don't mention it."**

**...I feel lame.**

**I'll try to get back to totally regular updates again, I swear. I should probably get back to editing this, though, I'm not sure I've gotten much past Chapter Twelve...**

**Please review!**


	12. Chapter Eleven: Arrival and Return

******Well, look who's actually updating on Friday for once! Coincidentally, this is the last chapter I have pre-re-written... I'm probably gonna work on that this weekend.**

******Disclaimer: I own approximately nothing involved in this story.**

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

**NJ**

**Batcave**

It took several seconds for Natalia's bleary vision to return to normal, and quite a bit longer for her to remember where she was. Once she was able to pick out the shadowy shapes of the Batmobile, Batcomputer, and the Batfridge (she loved the Duo to pieces... but was the ever-present Bat-prefix really necessary?), she realized she was still in the Batcave, in the same spot she had been when last she'd been awake - presumably the day before.

Natalia slowly sat up, using her uninjured arm to push herself into a sitting position. Slowly, carefully, she tried to rotate her shoulder, wincing loudly when pain shot through it once again. That wasn't going to heal very quickly, was it? Ugh...

The only difference in her surroundings was the presence of a bowl of soup on a metal cart beside her cot, along with the absence of the Boy Wonder. Her hunger temporarily overriding her lingering nausea, Natalia grabbed the bowl and wolfed the broth down.

The still-warm broth, meaning that the Duo - or perhaps this mysterious 'Agent A' - would be arriving soon.

"Al just called, said she'd woken up," a voice, Robin's voice, drifted down to her just a few moments later. Who was Al? Agent A, presumably. They probably hadn't meant for her to hear that.

"Good," a deeper voice responded - Batman. "We need to get her back to the Home immediately."

The faint echoing of the duo's footsteps grew louder as the pair neared the med bay of the Batcave.

"Hey," Natalia said, smiling faintly once the heroes came around the corner. Once she could see the pair, she realized they were dressed in civilian clothing, complete with large, dark sunglasses, and a large hat capping the Bat's head. "Time to head back?"

Batman nodded. Natalia sighed, sliding out of the bed with her right arm held carefully to her side. She hadn't made it more than a few steps before she stumbled, her head spinning. Maybe she should've gotten up a bit more carefully.

Robin was immediately beside her, holding on to her good arm to steady her. The hero guided her to another door, set in the near wall of the med-bay. He only released her arm when they were standing just before the door, letting her steady herself before holding out a small bag.

"Here," Robin said, passing her the bag. "When we met with Jenkins, we were able to grab some clothes for you. Figured you'd want to change."

Natalia nodded her thanks, quickly grabbing the bag and going through the door and into a small bathroom - a BAThroom, she thought, chuckling.

Her quiet laughter petered out when she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror. How much blood had she lost anyway? She tried to avoid the sight of her unnaturally pale reflection while she threw her hair up in a bun, the process taking far longer than usual, with each stab of pain in her shoulder causing Natalia to pause and wince. Pulling on the shirt presented a bit of a challenge, and by the time she was finished and leaving the bathroom she was feeling faint and a bit dizzy once again.

"I'm ready to go," Natalia said, keeping an iron grip on the doorknob well after she'd closed the door. Batman nodded and started to walk away as Robin moved behind her, tying a strip of dark fabric over her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Natalia," Robin apologized as he carefully tied the knot again, making sure not to catch her hair in the fabric. "Batman and I can't let you know where we are. We won't be going in the Batmobile, so I'll take the blindfold off once we're in the city."

Natalia nodded, feeling for and taking Robin's proffered hand and slowly letting the Boy Wonder lead her toward wherever Batman had gone.

**DG**

**Outer Edge of Gotham City**

The car was near silent, the only sound being Natalia's breathing, slightly louder than Robin and Batman's near-inaudible breaths. Admittedly, it was more than a bit awkward for Robin, seated in the front seat of one of Batman's extra cars, in an identity somewhere between Robin and Dick, with a girl he knew in both identities sitting, still blindfolded, in the seat behind him. He kept glancing back at her, trying to reassure himself that she'd be fine. She still looked too pale to Robin, and he really didn't want her to get hurt again because they hadn't let her heal before returning her to the Home. As he turned back to face forward, a glance from Batman asked the question Robin himself had been wondering for some time by that point.

Why did he care so much about her safety?

It wasn't like he, as Dick, had ever met her before the performance. Not that he knew of, at least. Nothing especially interesting had happened around her, and all in all she just seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time exceedingly often. How was it that someone he'd known for only a few days had managed to worm her way into his thoughts like Natalia had?

Dick had no damn clue. And unfortunately, Robin didn't have an answer either.

"You can take the blindfold off," Batman said a few seconds later, breaking the silence at last. Robin quickly averted his eyes from the rearview mirror, not wanting Natalia to feel any more awkward than the situation already was.

"Thanks for helping me again," she said quietly. "I don't know why you keep doing it... but really, thank you."

"No problem," Robin said, a tad too earnestly. "It's our job, after all." As he finished speaking, Batman pulled over, the flaking green paint of the Home's front door sliding into view as they came to a stop.

Robin stepped out, opening Natalia's door and helping her out of the car as Batman stepped up to the door. He lifted his hand to knock, but before he got the chance the door was yanked open by the building's owner.

"Thank you, sirs, for returning... _Miss_ Jordyn," Amelia said with a tight smile, her voice dripping with insincere sincerity. "I apologize for all the trouble she's caused you. I'll just take her off your hands now." Natalia flinched when the woman's cold eyes landed her, but nonetheless she released Robin's hand and stepped toward the door.

"Ms Jenkins, take care not to forget that Miss Jordyn _was _injured," Robin blurted when Amelia grabbed Natalia's right arm, yanking her up the stairs.

Amelia dropped the girl's arm immediately, shooting Robin a sickly sweet smile as Natalia mouthed a "thank you."

"Very well," Batman said, putting a hand on Robin's shoulder as the teen's anger began to grow. "Pleasure to meet you, Miss Jordyn. Take care."

Robin and Batman turned to leave, Amelia dragging Natalia inside and slamming the door behind her.

**NJ**

**The Home**

Natalia cradled her arm with her good one, holding it close to her chest and hoping Amelia didn't choose to attack her the second they reached the older woman's office. Unsurprisingly, Amelia had stomped off with a glare after shutting the door in the Dynamic Duo's face, and, as usual, Natalia was expected to follow her.

Once inside the office, Natalia shifted from foot to foot, her eyes on the now rather threadbare carpeting.

"Report to the kitchen before lunch," Amelia said without warning. "Since you can't do anything worthwhile, you'll be helping the new cook until you can work again."

"New cook?" Natalia asked quietly, glancing up at the woman. "What happened to Rose?"

"Left. She's too old," Amelia snapped, narrowing her eyes. "Stop asking questions. Go."

Natalia but her tongue and left the office silently, relieved that she'd gotten away without punishment but worried about Rose. Why had she just up and left, without warning?

In a slightly distracted state, she made her way to the kitchen, sounds of clanging pots audible from the opposite end of the hallway. A large crash sounded just before she walked in, and she was greeted with the sight of an unfamiliar teenage boy sitting on the floor, rubbing his head and surrounded by various pots and pans.

"You must be Natalia," the teen said, getting to his feet. "I'm Jeffrey. Jeffrey Walker. Could you, um, help me figure out where everything goes? I'm lost."

Natalia smiled, trying to push her questions about Rose to the back of her mind. "Of course."

**...In other news, Heathers: The Musical has become the love of my life.**


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